Ini's MUSE

Hello Everyone, happy new year and may 2017 do us all real good, Amen.  Been away from blogging but since I need to get out of this writer's block that is making Sister Joy send me midnight greetings, I've decided to rev the brain up a bit. In my over 35 years of working (yes you read right - I'm due for retirement), three books have made profound impact on me like never before.   I’ve always been drawn to books around strategy and unusual thinking and had just finished reading The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli in 1989, when I stumbled on The Art of War by Tun Tzu. If you are deeply interested in military strategy and understanding political power, or you are a political junkie like me, then the The Prince will speak to you. Most people  hold that it is the handbook for a would be tyrant, but indeed understanding it within context of your existing situation is important. Machiavelli took a rational approach in analyzing government and politics...

After my lunch meeting yesterday, I spent most of the night hugging my bible to my chest and just going back to scriptures and seeking understanding of some of the things I heard, and asking for more clarity on the directions I have been given hitherto and this scripture jumped at me. WE have all seen it or read it or heard it read before but it JUMPED at me and when I asked for better understanding, I wept with gratitude. Only the broken can understand. I will explain it: Paul employed this imagery in his letter to the Corinthians to make an important point, one that has never been very popular and one most of us holy, never do wrong, 'perfect' believers never understand. We are like the clay pots, like alabasters; when we are broken, the light of the gospel is shed abroad. And when we are broken like clay pots, our strength or power is not seen, but God’s. When we are broken by adversity, by sin, by mistakes, opposition, and suffering, God’s power is revealed, and God’s wo...