Hope for our nation...

Our nation is divided right now. Men vs women, white vs black,rich vs poor, conservative vs liberal, Trump supporters vs everyone else. I still believe that we can be "one nation under God". I am praying for and seeking unity. The place of unity is always the place of power. I watch football every week right now and we see that when a team plays well together that their chance of winning go up dramatically and we all know that winning is why we play the game. The real problem is that we want to win so badly that we overlook the fact that we are hating each other. Don't excuse hatefulness, or being mean. My parents taught me that if I couldn't say something good about a person then I shouldn't say anything at all. This would help us a lot today. Our conversations today would be a lot more peaceful and our homes would be more peaceful. The bible says "How good and how pleasant it is when brethren dwell together in unity." Let's begin to use our words to bless and to build up. I believe that when we begin to use our words in this way then our nation can be healed.

Me or We

I was eating breakfast this morning at Waffle house and I heard two people talking about a failing relationship. One of the people talking had just experienced a painful divorce after only being married for three years. The older woman said "do what makes you feel good after all in the long run that is what we all do." I have been married to the same woman for almost 42 years and if I've learned anything over the years it's that God never intended life to be all about me. Too many of us spend years trying to make ourselves happy but never find it.That kind of thinking leads to divorce not a happy home. When we are just focused on our own happiness we are sure to end up on the rocks. A good marriage is built more on we than me. If you listen to people on the road to divorce you'll hear them talk all about the other person. They didn't do this or they wouldn't do that. What the other person said or what they did to me. A really happy marriage is much more about WE than it is about ME. A really great life is spent focused more on others than on me. As long as I am the center of my life my world is much to small and of little consequence. When you begin to spend more time thinking about helping others then your life will begin to grow. When we get married our world becomes more about we, than me.

Walking in the dark

Walking in the dark can be a painful experience. I know because I've hurt myself on many occasions. I've stepped in a hole, and tripped over something in the path. I've hurt my foot, my toes, or my leg all because I couldn't see what was in front of me. This is the result of walking in the dark. Try walking through your house in the middle of the night. You leave the lights off because you don't want to wake up everyone else. Then halfway across the den you step on a toy that one of the children left on the floor. You puff up immediately because the toys were supposed to be put away before the kids went to bed. Whose fault was it that you couldn't it across the den safely? The truth is it's not your sons fault, or your wife, or the manufacturer of the toy. It's your own fault for walking in the dark. This is something that we should learn from life itself because we start learning from our earliest days when we first learned to walk and talk my mother and father were my first teachers. Every time we learned something new it was like a light turning on so we can see where we are going. Our entire lives are a continual process of learning to do things we haven't done yet. Have you noticed that there are some of us who don't seem to learn anymore? They are just bumping around into people or situations that they just can't handle. They quit learning long ago, in fact many of us just don't want to learn from anyone. We hold on to our ignorance as though it was a badge to be proud of. We all need help finding our way through life successfully and that's not something to be embarassed by. We all need help every day we live. I was well into my adult life before I learned the value of listening to the other guys point of view. This is a key to getting along with others. This is something that we all need to have a healthy marriage or healthy relationships. Their are people all around you that can help turn on the lights in your life. They can show you how to make it through the jungle you seem to be stuck in right now. Look around your world and look for those who have already made it across to the other side. There is someone around that has already built the thing you are working so hard to build right now. Listen to them and you will learn many of the traps that you can avoid. You can still find your way forward if you can listen and learn. If not then you can continue to walk in the dark, but that is the hard way to move forward and guarantees much pain. Listen and learn and you will make it to the goals you want to achieve in life.

The same...

We are not really different, we just think we are. This is why we can speak with so much venom about each other.it is much harder to speak badly about people we really know. This is at the heart of our division in America. This is why we don’t attack our own families. We know at our core that our family is more like us than different. I believe that because I know them. We grew up together and because of that I can accept our differences. Republicans, Democrats, Independents? Are we really different? I believe we are really more the same than different. We are all a Americans. We are all just people who were fortunate enough to be born in this country where freedom is more than just a word we are a country that has fought for the freedom of people they’ve never even met....WW1, WW2,no one had ever been to Korea when our soldiers began dying to make them free. Who among us doesn’t want a better life, healthy children, and a good marriage. We haven’t seen it recently but i believe we are much more the same than different.

What are you saying about you.

What are you saying? Proverbs says that life and death are in the power of the tongue. Jesus said in Mark 11:23 that you would have what you say. Most of us don’t believe there is any connection between our words and the life we live but there is. Listen to what you say from day to day. Winners talk about winning and that is not a coincidence. Winners expect to win...always. Think about the most successful people you know. They don’t walk around complaining about how life is treating them. They are too busy preparing to win to spend time complaining. What you are saying about your life are the most important words you will hear today. Faith comes by hearing and you will believe what you hear coming out of your own mouth over what others say. So talk about winning and expect to win. Read about winning and expect to win. Winning can become a habit so begin to talk about winning and your life will begin to change.

Good Plans

Jeremiah 29:11  "For I know the plans that I have for you," says the Lord. "They are plans for your good and not for disaster"

Parkinson's disease diagnosed in January 2012.  Up to now this is considered an incurable and progressive disease.  Then this past March I had a heart attack, and quadruple bypass surgery. Sometimes it can feel like life is just piling on and you may feel the same way at times. We can't afford to entertain those thoughts for very long.  Feeling sorry for myself is a long and dark road that is very difficult to recover from.  These are thoughts that I have to choose against all the time.

Jeremiah is sending me a different message.  He is saying that God has good plans for my life, so I am searching for them.  I may not be able to do some of the things I once did but there are things that I can still do well.  I spent years training sales people to sell insurance and I spent years leading start up churches.  The essence of what I have done was built on communication so I just need to find different avenues to use that gift.

I am finding great joy in communicating still.  I do it through the two blogs that I write on a daily basis. My life is finding purpose again as I share encouraging words with those struggling in a similar battle to the one I am fighting.

I am on a crusade to start an epidemic of hope.  This is God's good plan for me.  He has a good plan for you as well.

The Journey Continues

The journey continues.  Starting Monday August 19th I will be publishing this blog at a new website. You can find me now at battlingpd.com.  That's battling Parkinsons Disease.  This is where my health battle began on January 23rd of 2012.  At that time I was Pastoring a local church, involved in the insurance business, and living on a working 160 acre horse farm in Oglethorpe County just outside of Athens, Ga.  This is where the battle to reclaim my health began and this is what I have been writing about for these last several months.  Our new web site is designed to connect with others who are facing a serious health challenge, or know someone who is. I have a son, Andrew, who wants me to chronicle this battle from it's very inception.

I will continue to share and my wife will also share how this battle impacts her and the rest of my family.  We will also produce a video post on a weekly basis.  We are looking for new ways to help those who are feeling overwhelmed and isolated by their challenge whether it is Parkinsons, Cancer, Heart Disease or some other critical medical condition.

Our goal is simply to start an epidemic of hope and I pray that you will continue to follow along.

Join us at   www.battlingpd.com.

Enjoy the journey,  

Dan Brasher