I choose to smile a wicked smile...

It's the Jewish nature as well to struggle and fight: the name Israel
means: "He who wrestles with God." We do not blithely accept injustice,
plagues, or hardship...it's not over until it's over and until it's
over, it's our job to fight back with every fiber in our being. -Rabbi
Shmuley Boteach (Facing your Fears, 151)

The ordinary man is passive...against major events he is as helpless
as against the elements. So far from endeavoring to influence the
future, he simply lies down and lets things happen to him. -George
Orwell

Around 70 percent of the Psalms are complaints and lamentations to
God. I don't think it ends there but I do think much can begin there.
Until we face realty and the challenges we experience living in real
life and really articulate them, speak them, meditate on them we are
playing games.

Fantasy land is often visited frequently in religious meeting and
conversations. We like to think we are already in heaven but the truth
is we are not, we are right here on this fallen planet and that means
we are going to have to stop pretending that everything is all right
and everyone is going to be ok. Because even though that might be true
eternally for now it means we are going to have to fight.

It's a nasty fight sometimes too. Life doesn't fight fair, the devil
isn't a nice guy and people can be really selfish, cruel and hard
hearted. Face it, deal with it and find a way to move on through it...I
tell myself, or...

You can be swallowed by it all and let the life in you be strangled.
You can become dull as a butter knife and hide in your couch with the
blare of the tv set drowning out any thoughts of hope, faith or
prophetic anticipation. You can be beaten or disqualified and choose to
bury yourself in the appetites of your flesh until you lose sight of
your destiny and all you can see is falling shadows.

I choose to smile a wicked smile...broken teeth and all.

Yes the boot of life can hurt but only you can determine if it will
kick your butt or not.

Don't give away your power. Not to a man or a woman, not to a memory
or a failure.
Don't let Delilah gouge out your eyes by forcing you to give up that
spark that lies deep inside your breast.
Don't be coddled into passivity, rocked into ambivalence, or seduced
into sleepiness.

Fight the good fight and sucker punch if you have too!