Living Hazzardously

Little pieces of our journey with Jesus

Pages

Archives for March 2026

No Kings! 

by Leave a Comment

The end times as written in the book of revelation speaks so much to me as I reflect on the things around me today. Good has become evil and evil has become good. Confusion and division are more common than not. Listening to words that tickle the ears and not wanting words of truth. My truth, your truth, his truth and her truth, as if we can just decide what is true because we like this or that. It’s disheartening to think about, but as a Christian man, I “KNOW”, I don’t “think”… But how can I be so sure? How can you know for certain? Is there a way to “KNOW”

The internet definitions: 

Absolute truth refers to facts that are immutable, universal, and independent of personal beliefs, cultures, or perspectives. It remains true at all times and in all places. 

Subjective truth is a concept where the validity of a statement depends on the personal feelings, perspectives, or experiences of an individual. Unlike objective truth, it varies from person to person

Absolute truth is not subjective because it is based on reality, which remains true regardless of personal belief, culture, or perspective. It is discovered, not invented, and remains unchanging over time.

The object to which we determine objective truth is reality itself, the external world of facts, and logical consistency.

This may shock you…  but I believe there is “absolute truth”… And in fact everyone alive or dead believes in absolute truth regardless of personal claims that truth is subjective. 

Simply put, if you look deep into the facts of this world, you will find God, not the gods of self made religions but rather the God of the bible that has revealed himself through the very creation you can not deny, as you are part of that very creation!

In other words, you are proof that God is real and that you are a product of his creation…reality!! Regardless of your personal beliefs, God exists and He alone created you. 

Today’s blog post is my challenge for you to KNOW the truth, don’t say  “I think I’m right” or “I feel Im Right” just “KNOW” the truth… God has written truth and spoken truth to all creation. 

Be still and KNOW that I am God (ps 46:10) Is a challenge to stop striving to prove what you want to be true and embrace the TRUTH as the creator has already given proof to us all. 

Romans 1:18 For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth in unrighteousness, 19 because that which is known about God is evident within them; for God made it evident to them. 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, that is, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, being understood by what has been made, so that they are without excuse. 21 For even though they knew God, they did not honor Him as God or give thanks, but they became futile in their reasonings, and their senseless hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and they exchanged the glory of the incorruptible God for an image in the form of corruptible mankind, of birds, four-footed animals, and crawling creatures.

There is only one KING, and there will only ever be one king, anyone who fights an earthly king, fights God, anyone who exalts themself as king also fights God. How foolish are we to think we can create a world without God.

For more depth on this, look up my blog “Stop kicking the Goads…” published Nov 22, 2025.

I hope this post has stopped you in your stride and made you think about the truth we all need to KNOW.

God Bless, C.

The hands of an old man

by

Pedaling fast, “stunt riding” on my English 3-speed, what a dork I was… Back to the days of bike riding all day and never venturing beyond the sound of my mothers whistle… I was maybe 9 or 10.  I remember the hands of a man named John, a dear, sweet man, who lived on the block just south of me. 

He owned a “Lawn-Boy” mower, you know the one. It has a front wheel set oddly back from the front of the machine, on only one side. His back yard was fenced in the standard 4 foot tall chain link and attached to a single car garage. The magic of lawn care was flowing from this garage like the “yellow brick road leading to the emerald city” or perhaps a faithful geyser in yellowstone. With all the mystical contraptions to be utilized for the sole purpose of detailed landscaping.  He maintained the perfect lawn in North Minneapolis, at that time. 

As I steered my bicycle into the storm drain, obviously within sight of this magical garage, I felt the thump, and it was done. The front wheel wedged into the straight slots that diagonally crossed the grate, gaps that seemed to be perfectly spaced, trapping the front tire. An evil plot of its maker to collect little adventurous boys’ front tires… The Storm grates sole purpose was to give a man a reason to help the little boy escape the evil peril.

As he strolled the short block to where I was stuck and helped me whenever I got my front wheel trapped… a sewer grate… I think he knew, no, I KNOW he knew it was a trick to gain attention. 

My father came home one day to see me stuck. The first time it happened was actually an accident… dad whooped me hard that day and yelled at me… but the man with the lawn mower was kind, you could see patience and concern after he saw the rage my father had, a contrast so great, I had a longing to experience that kindness again, even if I needed to manipulate my world.  I had no idea a man could be kind… 

 I admit, I did this on purpose a few times to get attention from this pillar of a man that guided my life. Kindness was real, it wasn’t just found in story books. …. 

This man I knew only as John showed patience and concern over the many years of my childhood. I would hang out with him, watch him sharpen his mower blades, help him with little things like sweeping the sidewalk. His mower Blades seemed to always be dull and in need of a quick tune up and rebalancing. The magnificent lawn and a perfectly maintained mower were his only jobs. He had a wife, but I can no longer picture what her appearance was, I just remember she would appear from time to time dressed in her Sunday clothes on the way to church.

I remember the hands, big, strong, wrinkled and spotted. As he lumbered over to where I had again gotten my bicycle stuck, his arms extended and with no effort, removed the bike wheel as if it were as easy as taking a breath. 

Today I went online to order supplies for a job and I was reminded of this man! I looked down at the keyboard setting on my desk and I saw John’s hands. This time they were attached to my arms. Although there are no kids with front wheels stuck in the storm sewer on the corner of 35th & Sheridan in north Minneapolis, I couldn’t understand why he left his hands behind and why in the world are they attached to my arms???

I may not have a small child in my neighborhood, I may not have a pristine yard with a spotlessly clean lawnmower that reads “LAWN-BOY” across the front… What I do have is the little boy’s memories and the old man’s hands. In some ways, these two people have again met and somehow defied the laws of space and time to see the need to help a struggling little boy…

I serve these “boys”, some older than me.. Sam’s Place, (SIGH) some of  these guys have never seen a kind man with strong, wrinkled hands… they may have only felt the calloused back hand from fathers. A hand that steals. A hand that beats down another. Maybe they have only known the harsh words of a father screaming at them? Words of how worthless they are? Perhaps they have never known the kindness of a loving father (or a man named John)? Perhaps they reject the kindness of a man trying to help, because experience tells them nobody helps out of kindness but rather out of selfish gain??? 

Maybe they need help with the “bicycle and storm grate” of their youth? 

These old man’s hands typing on the computer are not mine, they belong to the old man named John! Wrinkles and lines, spots and calluses. The years have handed me these hands and I hope to pass them on to the next man named… Well I don’t know his name, probably never will.  

Hands passed down are now together and apart…

Yesterday I felt like I was only thirty, the day before it seemed like I was 20, and the day before that, I was a little boy looking at an old man’s hands… Now the old man’s hands are mine. 

May God Bless you this day with the hands you need, C.

I’m quitting, tomorrow! 

by

These days I wake up early in the morning, drag my ugly mug downstairs for a cup of joe, let the dogs out while it brews and take a minute to reflect on life. Eventually I find my way to the couch where I spend the next 15 minutes sipping coffee and stimulating my brain until I can have rational thoughts… then my brain comes alive and I start to sort all the things of life!

Two categories, relevant to my family and irrelevant… Once I have all the things of life sorted, I “take out the trash” … I have been doing this as a learned process of anxiety relief for many years. It’s hard for people to look at me today and imagine the level of crippling anxiety I once had… 

Crippled in fear, the future of my three sons was in the bllance. Without sleep, I would get up at 11pm, take Titan (my white GSD) for a walk. I knew I would not enter the bar if I had my pup with me… 

I would walk outside the bars of Belle Plaine MN and listen to the patrons tying one on… night after night I would stop, listen and think “One drink!!??” I could just slip away into the world of self medication and lose all my pain? Realizing the truth, I would walk the town until the bars closed, then I would be reminded why I needed to take every thought captive. They stumbled out and swerved all the way home… 

Doctors, Lawyers, tradesmen, husbands and fathers… inhibitions lowered and drowning the pain of their own life one shot at a time… 

I would return home, take a look at my sleeping sons and remember “I am not alive to feel good, But rather, to be the father I have been called to be!” and the next morning, my day would start, in a similar manner to how I start today… I thank God every day that he sustained me by surrounding me with good men, Godly men. They probably don’t know just how much they mean to me because how do you say it? How do you tell a man that they saved your life by saying “HI”…. Mike, Chuck, Keith, Kevin, Chris, Jay, Todd, Ruan, David, Jon & so many more, I cant list them all….. men of God, men I hardly knew, men that believed in me and spoke truth, passers by… exposing me to life and stability…. 

I would practice taking every thought captive, how to think positively, how to trust God, moments turned into minutes which turned into hours which turned into days, weeks, months and years… 

One of the many lessons I learned was this: “Get up, make your bed”.

I hear Jordan Peterson is using this lesson in his interviews, I don’t remember him asking permission from me but that’s ok, I can let it slide, for now. The idea is, when you get up in the morning, MAKE YOUR BED, and count that as a success. You can make your bed? Straighten out a drawer in your room! You cant do that? Do half! The point is to start somewhere and make that a habit. Something that improves your life, even if its just rinsing out your coffee cup when you are done, do something! Count that as success and build from there to straighten out your life. Add another simple thing in a week, or a month, just start somewhere and build from that point. 

Set a goal, make your goal ATTAINABLE… that means make it realistic and something you can do, and then do it! It must be MEASURABLE, you need to be able to actually have something that can be measured, not arbitrary. It must be REPEATABLE, it needs to be something in your life that you can actually do every day, don’t pick something like “clean my desk drawer” if you are not at work every day. It needs to be PERSONAL, not something others would notice, this is about you, not the world. And then you need to DO IT. 

It’s amazing how this can make your life manageable and the freedom you feel from success is empowering, and when you fail, because we all do, start over, start over and become successful again. 

For me it started in Ecclesiastes 3:8,, with the realization there was a time for every season… A time for hate and a time for love. Our seasons come and go, and there is a time for everything, under heaven. 

Don’t quit today, quit tomorrow, just never today. A paradox, because it never actually gets here. Today is the tomorrow you were dreading yesterday. Today never comes. Failure and quitting are tomorrow’s tasks, not today’s. 

God Bless, C.