The pinnacle of Creation

I recently had a conversation with a (female) friend of mine where we discussed my view of girls. Maybe I should say : women. But I will stick to girls. In my mind the term is more endearing.

Now if I talk of girls then I do mean all girls , although in my mind all of this will be focused on that one special girl in a man's , and one day my life.

While I am at it , let me get all of the small print out of the way. Whilst I tried, I do need to acknowledge and admit that there were times in my married life where this did not shine through as well as it should or could have. And I will always stand guilty to that and saddened to the fact that I did not show this as well as I should have.

Ok.

Ever since I can remember I was fascinated by girls. No , wait, maybe I should rephrase that. Ever since I was old enough to fall in love, I was fascinated by girls. I was intrigued by their beauty and grace and, will this make sense , their potential. Girls were these incredibly beautiful and special creatures.

As far as I was concerned , then and now, girls were the pinnacle of creation. I do not think that God created anything more precious or incredible before or since He created girls. I believed , and still do , that God created nothing more beautiful or special than a girl. And like with most special things , also nothing more fragile. And so from an early age I believed that girls needed to be respected and appreciated and protected. Somewhere in all of this I also believed that a girl had a mind and will of her own , and that her emotions and humanity were very , very important.

And I believe that if , as a man, I treat a girl with respect, love and care that it will bring out the best and the potential they were created to have to the fore. And that a girl living to the potential that God created her to be will be even more beautiful and special and sexy. And by the way : Sexy is so far removed from sex and what the media tries to make it. The sexiest girls , the ones that catch your eye and steals your breath , are not the pretiest ones. They are the girls who are confident in themselves and in who they were created to be.

I need to say that I have yet to meet the girl who really belies how special she is in God's eyes. And I know that the Devil goes out of his way to break down the self worth of the girls in our lives. Just look at how women are portrayed in the media.

So why did I post this? I truly do not know.

Maybe just to say this. If you my dear reader is of the male persuasion , then treat the girls in your life with the respect and love and care that they deserve as the pinacle of creation.

And if you are a girl. Then see yourself as God sees you. Realize the awesome potential that you have in you. And stop trying to measure up to the image that the media created of what you should be like.

The Mission trip to Mosambique

Two posts in one day ! Yep , believe it.

On top of my previous post I need to post this one.

Our church is planning a mission trip into Mozambique again ( they have done so once every two years or so since 1999). Now I believe that I am supposed to go on this trip. Apart from a school mission trip into Lesotho , I have not done something like this before. I do believe that I can serve the Lord on this trip , even if only with my photography skills to come and tell the story more clearly back home.

Now the costs of this trip would be about R4500 . That is about a whole month's pay for me. And as I have said in the previous post , it is not as if I have any spare cash lying around to pay for this.

And so , what it boils down to is this: If God wants me on this trip , and I hope He does, then He will have to find a huge rabbit to pull out of a hat. Because I am willing to go. I want to go. But I can not afford it. As it is , going will will cost me about 7 days in unpaid leave. Or to put it bluntly , it will mean that I will receive a quarter less pay at the end of the month of that mission trip.

And so I ask this of you my friends, readers and fellow bloggers. Pray with me that God's will be done. Pray that He who has infinite resources available , will make a way for me to go on this trip. And pray for the trip. That the work and service and love of the people going will be to His honor and Glory , and will further and solidify His kingdom here in our corner of the world.

The Question.... remix

I have been doing a lot of thinking , and praying, and talking to friends. And I believe that God does not want me in Bloem ....... Yet.

You see, due to some very stupid choices that I have made in the past , and compounded by the fact that I have not earned a decent salary in quite a while , I have a LOT of debt. Enough debt that I now have a lot of lawyers and debtors on my case.

Now before I can move forward with my life , I need to get rid of all this debt. Start on a clean page. With my current job and current salary , to clean the debt would take me nearly 5 years. By which time I will be 37 !

There is another option however. An option that I have considered earlier and then placed on hold when I started to enjoy the driving job (that I have since had to give up for the office position that I hate).

This option was to become a game ranger, or to use the proper name, a Field Guide. A job that I would like to do and one that will allow me to pay of my debt in about 2.5 years. The reason for this is that the job usually includes housing, food and clothes. So all of my salary, which is not great, will be able to pay debt. The reason for this quite obviously is that I now pay lodging and food , which will fall away if I am a Field Guide.

In order to apply for a game rangers position I will need to do the following :

• register with the Field Guide Association of SA in April
  
• batten down the hatches , and study my ass off .
• Write the Level 1 exam and pass with 75% or more.
• Get my PDP
  
• Do a practical exam at a game farm.
• Start applying for a job as a level 1 Ranger. (actually Field Guide)

So this for now is the short to medium term plan for my life. Stick it out with the current job, try to hold off the debtors (or apply to be placed under administration) and work towards getting that Level 1 FGASA credit behind my name.

So pray for me, that I have the strength , determination, and the drive to get through all of this.

The Question .continued....

Ok. So what on earth was all that about ??

Maybe , for those who do not know me, a quick background. I grew up in a town called Bloemfontein. In my married years I have moved with my wife (then a probationary minister in the Methodist Church) from Bloemfontein to Centurion. Then Macassar , near Cape Town. Then Bloemfontein again. Then , after getting very hurt in the congregation in Bloemfontein, we moved to Uitenhage. Now apart from the fact that our marriage of 10 years ended in divorce in Uitenhage , the place was actually very good to both of us. My (ex) wife has since moved to Cape Town where, I am happy to say , she is very happy. I have stayed around in Uitenhage and started to work for VW as an endurance test driver. A job that I really enjoyed. The only bad thing about the job was that there were times where no work was available and I stayed home. Without pay !

Now in the mean time , the boss needed a PA. And I was the choice , I guess since I knew how to witch on a PC. To be honest, I do not like this new job. In fact the word 'hate' springs to mind. I am not sure how long I will be able to keep up under this strain. The only nice thing about the new job is the fact that I am guaranteed of work every day. Something that I really need, given my precarious financial situation.

Right ! Now to the Question. In the past 3 days I have had 3 people all asking me when I am moving back to Bloemfontein. I have been avoiding that question , but it seems that God wants me to deal with it.

For a reason I can not explain I have been kicking very hard against going back to Bloem. I think that I need to list the pros and cons of Bloem here.

Cons

• I have gotten very hurt in Bloem
• Bloem is very far from the ocean - something I have come to love.
• Bloem is very far from my wonderful Uitenhage friends
• I am going to miss my church
• I do not know where I will join a church in Bloem. I do not trust any of the 2 Methodist churches there.
  
• There is not much to do as far as outdoor experiences are concerned.
  

Pros

• I have very good friends in Bloem
• I can have a clean start without the 'stigma' of being recently divorced.
• I have a chance of getting a job that I like.
• There may be some one special for me in Bloem

I need to find God's will in this. Where does He want me to go ? I wish I knew what He wanted me to do with my life. Because I honestly have no idea.

I do know this: If I go to my boss and tell him that I am resigning and moving to Bloem he will give birth to seven little kittens with rubber necks on his desk.

The Question now is .....

c - South African Tourism

The big question.

I will post more details later. But for now this will have to do.

I need to go and pray and ask God about this one.

Another day , another mood.

Thank you to all who commented and worried and phoned me after my very negative post yesterday.

I maybe need make one thing clear - I know that God is always with me. Even in my deepest despair yesterday was I not unaware of His presence in my life .




I think that what got to me yesterday was a sense of hopelessness . I do not know what God is planning for my life and I do not understand why things happen in my life. And that is something I do not handle well. If I know why something is happening or what the plan for a certain event is , then I am quite happy to go through loads of nonsense in order to get to the end result. I could not see where my life is going. I saw all the negative things and all the things that to me looked so big and I forgot that I serve a God who is not limited to my limitations .

I guess I need to remember James 1 : 2-5

2Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. 4Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. 5If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him.

Especially since I have been asking God for wisdom and understanding so I can know His will for my life.

I consider myself rapped over the knuckles !

Today , I am curious . I can not wait to see where God is going with my life. And yes , I am also impatient !!!! I wish He would do things now.

And then I stop and I realize.:" But He is doing things now !" He is doing things in my life. And in my friends lives. And it excites me so !!

Question : Do we serve an AWESOME God , or what ??!!

Today

Today I am feeling tired and depressed.
I did not enjoy my job.
And I am lonely.

Maybe that is what is eating me most. Human beings were never made to be alone. And I do not do well with alone.

What am I trying to say ? I do not know. I have no idea.

Sometimes life is just ....... hard.

Mine is . Today.

But

tomorrow

will

be

better.

I am just tired , and depressed , and gatvol , and lonely. Maybe I just have PMS. And this blustery wind is not helping.

Don't worry . I will be ok. promise !

Blogs and readers(stats)

Earlier today ...... No wait it is yesterday by now.

Any way . Earlier on this blog I received 2 comments on my last post. One was from Matt at the Church of no People.

The other was from Tony C of Tony C Today.

Now Tony said :"Keep writing and people will find you and follow your blog." and I responded by saying :"I could not really care whether people read my blog or not. "

(Reading it again now that actually sounds a bit harsh.)

Then , later on , I realized that what I said was a contradiction to one of my earlier posts this month where I said that I blog because I wanted people to read.

And so I am here , to try and sort out the confusion.

I do not really mind how many people read my blog. Especially people from outside of my circle of friends. Make no mistake ... I am flattered that people like Tony and Matt take the time to read a bit and actually comment on my blog. But I am surely not Blogging to create a following . I blog for me. I blog to sort out my thoughts and put my struggles down on paper webspace. If , by chance, or maybe by God's guidance, someone I do not know reads my blog and finds a grain of wisdom , or a similar struggle or some comfort in my blog then that is good. But that is surely not my main purpose to this blog.

I do hope that my friends do read my blog, because I think that reading my blog might give them an insight into my thoughts and my emotions that they would not otherwise have had. I hope that by reading each others blogs we would see the needs and share the pain of this circle of friends. That we would be able to carry each others burdens

And so I write in order to be honest. To put my heart on my sleeve and leave my masks at the door firewall and just be me. To show those interested enough in me the real me. And if, after they have read my blog and seen the real me, they still want to be my friends then I know that I have true friends.

It is nice to know that there are people who read my blog. But , it is not essential to my blog's survival. Even if I had no readers , I would still blog.

and 19:43 ..

I just thought that after that whole post this morning and my moaning about my job, that it is only fair that I come back and comment some at the end of this day.

I was really really tired . And what a whacker of a day I had. Never a still moment. But ....

I need to be honest. I actually feel better about the job. I feel a bit more in control of what is happening and I nearly enjoyed doing it. It was a real busy day and I had to keep going.

And the fact that my boss went to the trouble, of bringing the lady who I am replacing down from Pretoria to help show me the ropes, helped a lot because I did not need to ask him for help or advice on every little thing.

So ! I am sure that My heavenly Daddy had hand in this day and helped me to face it. And I am thankful.

Now if only He would answer my other questions !!

But I guess , all in good time.

05:46 in the morning

It is quarter to six on this beautiful Tuesday morning, and I find myself in front of my PC again. I have just come back from cycling with my friend Neville aka Mcgyver. I really enjoy these early morning cycling sessions , but I do find that I pay the price for them as well. The thing is that in order to go cycling before work I need to get up at 4:30.

Now that in itself is not a problem. Especially if you go to bed at 20:00 like my dad. But.... The problem is that I don't. Even if I go to bed at 22:00 I find myself rolling around and being very awake till at least 00:30. And that leaves me with 4 hours of sleep a night. Which for me is way too little.

I find , that without enough sleep, I become irritable and depressed. I do not cope well with things in my life.

Like my new job. I have been moved from having to drive for 8 hours a day to having to sit in an office and do filing and excel spreadsheets for 8 hours. And I do not enjoy it. Which makes me feel guilty.

I know (and have been told by my mother) that I am intelligent. That I have a brain capable of solving problems and getting jobs done. I have proven that yesterday by redesigning one of our spreadsheets and effectively cutting my workload by 35%. And all of this makes me feel guilty for preferring a mindless driving job above something challenging.

In a couple of days there will be more cars running and enough work for everyone andI will be stuck in an office. I just wish I could see God's plan for me in all of this.

Maybe I need to get more sleep. Then I will probably cope better. And blogger will get less posts out of me. And I would not post pictures of mice inside snakes, and giggle uncontrollably when I see it.

PS: Sorry about moaning like this. I just had to talk to somebody..... (but that is another post on its own)

PPS : I sure hope my boss never reads this.

Random thoughts

Another day draws to a close as I sit in front of my desk, staring at this empty screen and this keyboard full of dead letters.

Thoughts and emotions tumble through my mind , refusing to be captured and penned down. This frustration with a another meaningless day in the office is underlined by an overwhelming sense of loneliness, punctuated and given meaning when I walk into this empty little space I call home.

What would I give to be able to just hold another human being till this loneliness dissipates. To be allowed to cook for two. To watch Tv or listen to music in silence, just knowing the presence of another beside me.

O what a sweet dream, this dream of companionship and intimacy. This dream that I am not sure I am allowed to have. How I wish that God sent SMS's or telegrams. What if this dream clashes with His will ? If only I could know, could share , in the dreams He has for me. If only I could know that somewhere in the future .......

And so I battle with this fight inside me. This struggle to be content in the now. This struggle to remain positive and wait for His time. I long to know where He needs me to go , and what He needs me to do. I long to know his purpose and dream for my life.

Funny how having a soul mate and serving God , in my mind at least, seems directly opposed. But it is. It always has been in my life. This battle between 'seek ye first the Kingdom' and this overwhelming need to love and be loved.

Pray for me . Pray that I will find His will and His answers. Pray for me as I seek his plan for my life . As I try to understand. As I battle through each day in the office. And as I strive to place Him first in my heart and my life.

I just could not resist !!!

I am sorry !! really, but I just could not resist posting this when I saw it now !!

ROFLMAO !!!!


;o)

Some more exhibitionism

This morning , with yesterdays post on blogging still in my mind , I sat in front of my Pc and looked at my earlier blogs.

If you are a sucker for punishment , you are welcome to go and look at my previous blogs.

125th @ f8 - starts my blogging experience in 2005. And then appears and disappears until 2007. where I then start a new blog called :

The sometimes cynical opinions of Mev. Dominee. this ran from 2007 until early 2008. somewhere in the middle I changed the name to 'The bloggger formerly known as Mev Dominee'

As always with Blogs it is best to start at the bottom and work up just to make sure that you keep a sense of chronology.

But anyway... I have realized that blogging has become a part of my life. There were times when I blogged more , or less, but always I returned.

And now , I can look back at about 4 years of blogging and see how I have grown. And reflect on the good and the bad times. And through it all I can see God working in my life.

Leviticus .......

My friend Steven has written a post about Leviticus on his blog.

And like Steven I have a similar one year Bible. And this morning I read this passage that knocked my socks off.

3 " 'If you follow my decrees and are careful to obey my commands, 4 I will send you rain in its season, and the ground will yield its crops and the trees of the field their fruit. 5 Your threshing will continue until grape harvest and the grape harvest will continue until planting, and you will eat all the food you want and live in safety in your land.

6 " 'I will grant peace in the land, and you will lie down and no one will make you afraid. I will remove savage beasts from the land, and the sword will not pass through your country. 7 You will pursue your enemies, and they will fall by the sword before you. 8 Five of you will chase a hundred, and a hundred of you will chase ten thousand, and your enemies will fall by the sword before you.

9 " 'I will look on you with favor and make you fruitful and increase your numbers, and I will keep my covenant with you. 10 You will still be eating last year's harvest when you will have to move it out to make room for the new. 11 I will put my dwelling place [a] among you, and I will not abhor you. 12 I will walk among you and be your God, and you will be my people. 13 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt so that you would no longer be slaves to the Egyptians; I broke the bars of your yoke and enabled you to walk with heads held high.

What more can I say !!!!! What a promise !

Exhibitionism and voyeurism

Better know as Blogging and blog reading . ‘Cause let us face it . Blogging is a form of exhibitionism and reading blogs a form of voyeurism.

But let us start at the beginning. The question in mind my mind that gave rise to the thought above was this : Why do we blog ?

A question that I wondered about a lot in the last while. I can only answer for myself .

I Blog beacsue I need to. It is a way for me to organize my thoughts. To Share my feelings and to bitch when things go wrong. Speaking off …. I used to bitch a lot on my blogs. And I know why.

Let me backtrack a bit. When I was younger I used to write. Nothing profound. Nothing that would ever have been published. But things that came from my heart. Things that dealt with my pain and struggles and joys. Personal things. Originally, when I started blogging , the plan was to write those things. But then I realized that the people who know me read my blogs. And that especially my (ex)wife read my blog. And that the things I write had the potential to hurt her. And so I did not write the deep things. Stupid ,don’t you think?

And so my blogs changed into bitching pages. Moaning about things gone wrong , etc.

And so for me , as I go into this new phase of my life , this would have to change. I have decided to be honest about and with myself. And to write what I feel.

And of you , the reader , I ask this. Please do not take what you read on this blog personally. Please see in it my need to be honest with myself and about myself. Please understand that I do not write to hurt anybody. But that I write to share , who I am , what I feel , and where I am .

And so , back to the question : Why do I blog ?

I blog , because I want people who know me to read. Because I want them to see a side of me that is sometimes so very well hidden. To share my pain and joy . I blog , because sometimes it is easier to share what is inside than it is to do face to face.

By Oliwenhuis....

Hier sit ek by oliwenhuis. My koffie is klaar. My huil is op (wel dalk nie heeltemaal nie). Die laksie het klaar kom bedel. Ek het almal gegroet en dis tyd om te ry. Terug na Uitenhage toe. Terug na verantwoordelikheid en roetine.

En ek stel uit. Ek bestel nog koffie. Ek luister bietjie langer na die laksie en die duiwe en die kindertjies wat op die gras speel. Ek lees net nog een storie uit Dana Snyman se boek wat my ma my geleen het.

En in my kop probeer ek sin maak van hierdie week in Bloem. Ek probeer die emosies en die reaksies verwerk. Nie soseer die ander mense s'n as my eie nie. En ek byt hard op my tande en kyk op na 'n denkbeeldige ding hoog bo, want hoe gaan dit lyk as 'n groot man , alleen by 'n tafel sit en huil.

So probeer ek my emosies verwerk. Verwoord. En getrou aan hulle aard kom staan hulle een vir een om getel te word. Hartseer. Alleen. Verlange. Vrees. En dan word ek bewus van die grootste en belangrikste emosie van almal.

Dankbaar. Dankbaar vir vriende wat nie moed opgegee het met my nie. Wat my nonsens opvreet en my aanvaar net soos ek is. Wat moeite doen en omgee. Wat verby my stukkende hart en stukkende selfbeeld en valse bravade kyk en vir my omgee. En van hulle self gee om my te help heel maak. En ek is so onbeskryflik dankbaar. Dankbaar vir hierdie onverdiende genade, en liefde , en versorging.

Mag ons Pappa julle seen vir alles. En mag ek eendag vir julle soveel beteken soos julle vir my.

Ps. Ek wonder wat dink die mense rondom my as hulle sien hoe die trane op my selfoon se keyboard val. Maar dis ok. Dis danbaar trane. Elkeen van hulle.

This tension of the soul

Today I am forced to blog from my cell phone again. I do not like blogging from my phone since the buttons are too small and I can not pound out my frustration and aggression on this small keyboard.

To get to the title of this post. I find myself torn between doing (and finding God's will) and doing what I would like to do or think that I need.

I really , really need to find and do God's will in my life. And I find it so very difficult to know and find His will. And somewhere in this whole mix is my sexuality. My need for love and acceptance and intamacy. Not sex. Just intamacy. A sense of belonging. Of selfworth.

The problem is that it is so much easier to experience love and acceptance and intamacy from a fellow human being than it is to experience this from God. For me in any case. But i realize that before I do not experience and accept this from God , I will never be able to fully experience this from another human.

And so I am torn between my needs and God's will.

I wanted to call this post 'torn', but that would have implied damage and hurt and pain. And I realized that that would not be entirely true. Whilst I am living in this tension I am not getting hurt or damaged.

In this tension I grow. In this tension I learn. It is difficult. And lonely. But I believe that through this , I will grow closer to God. And that I will grow stronger. And I realize that ultimately that is what I need.