On been ‘cancelled’

If you haven’t been “cancelled” yet… what exactly are you waiting for?

Or maybe the better question is: What are you still afraid of?

Before I explain where I’m going with this, allow me to offer a metaphor. A story that speaks to the choice we all must eventually face:

In the depths of a medieval dungeon, three prisoners are shackled to a stone wall, awaiting execution.

One by one, each man is summoned by the executioner and given three choices:

Firing squad.
Hanging.
The Black Door.

The Black Door is a mystery cloaked in terror. Whispers among the prisoners speak of torture, madness, and horrors worse than death.

The executioner approaches the first prisoner.

“How do you wish to die?”

“Hanging,” the man replies without hesitation.

The executioner leads him away.

He returns for the second prisoner.

“How do you wish to die?”

The man stiffens. “Firing squad.”

Moments later, the thunder of rifles echoes through the dungeon halls.

Finally, the executioner faces the third prisoner.

“How do you wish to die?”

The man’s eyes dart to The Black Door. He hesitates. For a moment, he seems ready to choose it. But fear overtakes him.

“H-hang me,” he stammers.

The executioner escorts him to the gallows. As the noose is secured around his neck, the executioner asks,

“Any last requests?”

The prisoner gulps. “Yes… before I die, tell me—what’s behind The Black Door?”

The executioner pauses, then smiles.

“Freedom.”

And with that, he pulls the lever.

Moral of the story:

Often, the path we’re warned not to take… is the very one that leads to freedom.

Cancel culture is The Black Door. Most people tremble before it. But everyone I know who’s had the courage to walk through it, has emerged more free than they’ve ever been.

Over the past five years, I’ve asked every dissenting doctor, scientist, and whistleblower the same question at the end of our interviews: “Do you have any regrets for speaking out?”

Without hesitation, they all answered, “No.”

In fact, the majority described what felt like a spiritual phenomenon:
For the first time in their lives, they were experiencing the kind of freedom that comes only from being in service to truth.

I can relate.

The moment I stopped playing it safe was the moment I was consumed by a peace I’d never known.

It was Jesus Christ who said, “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”

That’s not just theology.
It’s a roadmap to liberation.

So I ask you again:
What are you still afraid of?

Losing your job?
Losing customers?
Losing friends?

Here’s what I’ve learned from being willing to lose any of that:

That’s when fate reveals itself.

When you’re truly in service to people, to truth, to life itself—something sacred happens.

The benevolent forces of the universe step in.
That’s the safe way of saying: God shows up when you show up.

Bad jobs are replaced with good jobs.

Misaligned customers are replaced with aligned customers.

Shallow friends are replaced by deep friends.

This is what happens when you choose truth over comfort.

This is what happens beyond The Black Door.

Yes—getting canceled is uncomfortable. But only for a moment.

Stay the course, and the discomfort will pass.

In its place will come the quiet power of knowing you’re in service to something far greater than yourself.

Because the only life worth living is a life lived on purpose.

Are you ready?

Of course you are.

You were born ready.

The time is now.

The world needs your voice.

Your wisdom.

Your uncensored truth.

Now more than ever.

Be brave. Get out there and…

#GetCanceled

PASS IT ON!

Mikki Willis
Father/Filmmaker

Book review -The Reason for God

The Reason for God. Belief in an age of scepticism
By Timothy Keller

This book was given to us from some rather well meaning        religous friends

Religion is a very personal emotionally charged subject for some, so I’m well aware of possibly offending someone, somewhere.

Been a live at let live sort of person, I have no strong beliefs about religion -simply put, if it works for you, so be it.

The book itself has a series of common questions that come up about beliefs in God, as noted by the author who is the head of a popular Christian church in the USA.

The book starts off lightly and helpfully corrects some misconceptions about religion that I’ve held for years

  • If you believe in God, you are doing this as an act of faith, because you cant prove God exists. If you don’t believe in God, you are also doing this as an act of faith, because you cannot prove God doesn’t exist.
  • Those annoying, fanatical, overbearing, self-rightous religious people, you run into occassionally, aren’t ‘super religious’ at all. They haven’t learned to be humble, sensitive, empathetic, and forgiving as christ was, and therefore aren’t religous enough. (P57)
  • Religious people aren’t perfect, churches are like help centres for those finding their way, rather than for people who are already there. Expecting  ‘perfect’ christians at a church is a bit like expecting only healthy people at a hospital.

The book gets deeper and deeper after that and starts to lose me because I’m not that clued up on the bible.

For example, It mentions ‘The Da Vinci code’ which while it’s fictional, it has started a flood of bible revisionism.
I’m not up with the play on that topic, and I don’t think I need to be.

To sum it up another way, I don’t need to be a qualified chef to fry an egg, I can do it just fine thank you very much.

It’s probably therefore a book that I need to read from cover to cover several times to ‘get’ it, but I probably need to read the bible first.

It’s like the book tries to pull you into a certain way of looking at things, and you are either on that bus, or not.

Overall it feels like the book nudges you to think about God in a certain way, and ‘join the club’, I dont think it sets out to do this intentionally, but thats where I ended up.

Perhaps my attitude will change as I read the book a few more times, but thats how it feels to me at the moment

A minor hiccup

It’s been a year since we have moved out into the country from a city. It’s been mostly positive and peaceful. We have spent long hours reburbishing the house and land, which is hard work but also very rewarding. there’s a great sense of accomplishment that comes with it.

We had planned a party with friends to celebrate a year of living in the countryside in our new house, but then we had a gatecrasher turn up a few days beforehand in a the form of a tornado.

We were at home at the time. It was nightime with just a bit of rain and wind outside. Suddenly the wind started howling and the rain was hammering down like I’ve never heard before.

Then there’s several big flashes outside  when tree branches hit the powerlines outside, which put us in the dark along with the neighbours.

It was all over in about within 2 minutes.

I checked out our chickens who were just fine as if nothing had happened. In contrast, it was a neighbour who was going feral screaming at anyone within hearing range. That in itself was a precursor to what would happen the next day.

I spent half the night helping to clear the road and all sorts of other stuff with neighbours

The next day had contractors running around cleaning up the mess. The feral neighbour had lost their own powerlines on there own property which are there responsibility.

Unfortunately, it was one of our trees that took them out, so they decided that it was our fault and kept hassling us to admit liability. I simply told them this was an insurance issue.

It turns out they had organised contractors to repair their powerlines, these guys had demanded that they be paid on the day. The neighbour admitted at one point that they didn’t have any money to pay them.

It came to a head, when they sent their contractors over to us, with initial demands that we pay half the bill in their name, and that they wont leave until paid

Apparently, it was too hard for these contractors to put the bill in our name, so a standoff ensued while my wife checked with our insurance company to check weather we should actually pay it.

After they overheard my wife’s conversation with our agent explaining that half the bill would need to be in our name with the correct amount, they miraciously produced the correct paperwork!

I cant say my wife was impressed. Technically, she could of just trespassed them off our property, and had their vehicle towed, since we never employed them and they had no paperwork signed by us. My wife had to handle this alone, because I rushed off to get a new waterpump before the shops closed for the weekend.

It was all over by the time I got back, and I put the new waterpump in as the sun was setting down.

The next day, everything was back to that typical country serenity and we had that party as we had planned.

As for the neighbours, they are basically wiggling around a lot, and we have people that would like to talk to them.