I suppose I should not be so harsh to those of my generation on Facebook. Fear is a powerful taskmaster, especially to those who do not know their end. Quick fact: you're going to die. That realization never seems to hit people does it? That the world goes on without them in it.

Grab all the money like Elon and his 225 billion...
Gain all the political power of the evil men...
Flutter all for the fame of the world...

Their end is the same: before the judgment throne to determine the extent of the wrath of God for the dark eternity before them. So shall I be there, but covered by what Jesus did for me—AND I'm adopted as an heir. (!!!)

I look at the Social Security Actuarial Life Table and it projects that at 45, there are 32 years in the bucket for me. But there's no guarantee of that! Frankly, what does that neat, black-and-white table know? Again, my parents died at 66 and 64 with their teams of doctors who shoved them into the afterlife.

But, THAT is the temporal side of me that is a little god. I take a step back. They died exactly as it was foreordained. And as those who submitted to the lordship of Jesus and did neither call Him a liar nor a lunatic, I shall join my parents in time (looking forward to the coffee). I hear that the guy frying the fish is good—does He do sushi? (John 21:9-14) Setting aside that future time together, I take comfort in this:

Your eyes saw my unformed substance; in your book were written, every one of them, the days that were formed for me, when as yet there was none of them.

Psalm 139:16 (ESV)

My days were numbered before I even started counting.

So what do we do with this?

I wrote some really good stuff back in January. And I know how I could: daily, I was mining Scripture, reading the same chapters day-after-day, Romans 1-8 for the month of January. It slipped my mind that I wrote How Did Facebook Change Me After Three Weeks?. Reading it makes me lament that I gave up this approach to the Bible. How would 2023 have landed if I held fast? Ahh, but it's not over yet...

Again, somewhere along the way, I accepted less. Far less.

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Listen to me, O house of Jacob, all the remnant of the house of Israel, who have been borne by me from before your birth, carried from the womb; even to your old age I am he, and to gray hairs I will carry you. I have made, and I will bear; I will carry and will save.

...800 years later...

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.

Isaiah 46:3-4 and John 10:27-29

John Piper's Take

Why are you a Christian when you wake up in the morning and when you go to bed at night? Christ is real and precious and you pray and you enjoy fellowship—why should it be that way when you wake up in the morning?

Our emotions are fickle, our will goes this way and that way, we change our opinions, and we get blown around by events. Why shouldn't you wake up an unbeliever? Why don't you think, "That's boring. Why did I ever buy into that? That was stupid?" Why not? And there is one answer:

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling...be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen. (Jude 1:24-25)

There's only one answer. It isn't automatic, like, "I prayed my prayer and I believe in eternal security therefore I can never be lost, period." That's not the way it works. He keeps you.

-John Piper, Perseverance of the Saints

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This is the time of year I start considering making another run at Facebook—catching up with old friends and strengthening bonds with people that have meant a lot to me. But, I hesitate:

I don't want the weight of their worlds to be yoked onto my shoulders.

Their mid-40s mindless reliance on the medical industry while in a stroked-out, limping-to-their-caskets stagger to an unremarkable endgame as they absolutely insist they don't need to improve is BEWILDERING. Their never-satiated desire to sit at The Cool Kid's Table by hungrily nodding in approval of evil is REVOLTING.

Who needs those lies?

As it has been said,

You'll never get nowhere smokin' the pipe...get rid of the drugs. Get away from the in crowd. Get'a close to God.

I'm not without my failures; I have been weak. I look over this past year's New Year's Resolutions and see I was perfect 0-for-forever. There was a time when I dreamed bigger—I felt confident of achieving success.

I pulled out the backup of my site from that New Year's Eve. I then played my YouTube Music generated Winter Recap '23. I just wanted to wrap my mind around the mindset I had: I was Geralt of Rivia, livin' on a prayer and dancing in the moonlight. I saw fire. I lived like we're alive.

Somewhere along the way, I accepted less. Far less.

My pool is closed for the season. I find it exciting—oh, not now. Indeed, the pool area is an exceeding drab thing. The black cover sucks the vibrancy from the space; the overgrowth of plants imparts an abandoned mood.

However, my eyes don't see this. No, I envision next year: what I'll look like and what I'll be doing when that pool is open again around mid-March. It was on 3/23/23 with a pool temperature of 63° when I swam for the first time at my house. Perhaps next year, it'll be 3/24/24 to swim at 64°.

I got to thinking: why not make the first New Year Resolution involve carving down to a BMI of 24 in '24? I've got 108 lbs to lose. Can I do this?

Fortunately, I've got this in my back pocket, the knowledge of a high-fat carnivore from November to June '23:

• Time span: 30 weeks
• Daily fat avg.: 213 g
• Daily protein avg.: 77 g
• Daily carbs avg.: <1 g
• Weightloss: 2.56 lbs / week (0.37 / day)

The 24 BMI target will be achieved on August 15. At 166 lbs, I'll borrow from that STRANGER THINGS poster that hung in my gym: "One summer can change everything."

My last post featured my foot setback and the shelving of self. Things have since changed as on Saturday, I put in 1700 steps followed by Sunday's 4200. The foot still aches. There are mornings I gotta boot it up with a percussion massager. That said, "By the Power of Carnivore...I Have the Power!"

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What Am I Listening to Today?

I want to bring this site back to its past. My temperament has always aligned itself with retrowave / synthwave, even before it was a thing.

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