wogblog

I’ve loved this song for years … some might think it corny, but for me it’s been somewhat of a silent mantra. Many can probably remember the first verse of “he ain’t heavy” … but the second verse really carries a thought of deep responsibility … So on we go / His welfare is my concern / No burden is he to bear / We’ll get there / For I know / He would not encumber me / He ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.

I was watching one of those newsy programs last week on tv. There was a story about a young woman who was kidnapped by a man she did not know … who lived only blocks from her home. The account of what happened to her was unbelievable. The first stop that this man made was to his cousin’s house to borrow some gasoline and a shovel. The cousin came outside to see this young woman in the back of the car, bound, screaming for help, trying her best to get someone’s attention. The cousin never questioned what was happening and never called police. On the man drove … three people with cell phones witness this woman in the back of this car pounding on the windows and hearing her screams choose not to make a call. One woman does make a call to 911 … she gets the color of the car wrong and tells the 911 operator that it is a child screaming … the 911 operators fail to dispatch a police cruiser. 10 minutes later … the woman is dead, covered in a shallow grave, only yards from the last time the lady called 911.

I sat there with my mouth open asking, how could this have happened? Two of the men who witnessed it in their cars … now broken with guilt commented … I just didn’t want to get involved. This is a tragic example of how we all become so self consumed that we can not stop our busyness and help others.

The road is long … with lots of twists and turns … lots of places for people to trip up, stumble, and fall. I want to be one that helps. I certainly can’t help everyone … but the one’s that come in my “road” … may have a chance.

wog <<

I don’t know what it is about August for me. It’s like New Year’s. I’m full of new ideas and eager to start new things. Maybe it’s because it’s so terribly hot and I don’t really want to get outside. That’s not it.

Anyway … it’s a new blog because I feel that I have turned a corner in my life and ambitions in life. After spending a couple of years in a nose dive of despair … I have sensed a new direction for me … not a mountain top by any means … but simply a crawling up on the banks of hope. I’ve been a helper or a guide most of my adult life. Guiding those that would listen to a different perspective on living. It’s been fun. But … what happens when the guide needs guiding. Well, in my case … a lot of dead end thoughts and plenty of whining and self-pity. After a while you figure out … you know wayne, you are stronger and better than this. No one is coming to rescue you from your self made mud puddle. So, shut up and get up.

I stopped my blog over at Harley Ghost because that thing just didn’t fit me anymore. My sight is set for different things now. I feel that I have grown a lot in the last 3 years of non-pastorate living. One of the biggest things that I have learned of myself is this … my significance is not found in what I do … but, who I am. I am not the sum total of a plastic door plaque. I am what I decide to be. It is in my choosing to be a man of integrity or a man of deceit. It is my choice to live below the circumstances or have a brighter day attitude. Even in the middle of hard times … and man a lot of us are living in hard times … I can be happy, if I choose to be so. I can laugh or I can curse. It’s really all left up to me.

So, welcome to my new site. Hopefully through some of my stories you can find yourself. Maybe some of my coaching can help you where you live. I’m not an expert anymore. I am a sojourner, a pioneer of better things for my life.

wg —