Biden Pushes Internet Death Penalty

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Como Ser Feliz - 9

 

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Celestiais

 

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Como Ser Feliz - Pt 8

 

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Como Ser Feliz - Pt 7

 

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Get Up On That Board and Try Again!

 

Dennis Edwards

My wife and I have come on a three week holiday of rest, relaxation, and spiritual refilling while we also visit with her family in the sunny clime of Tenerife. Yesterday as we relaxed by a natural pool at the north of the island, I was drawn to watch a young group of female surfers not far from the shore. I had over-heard their instructor giving some last minute instructions before they enterred the water. The tide was high and a little rough and off the young women went with their surf-boards into the water.

The instructor left without a board but with two sponge supports to help to keep her afloat. She would stay in the water and try to help position the girls to enable them to catch the waves. As I watched, I noticed that some of the girls would attempt over and over again and be thrown from their boards over and over again. And yet they persisted. Others seemed to be content to sit on their boards and watch the others from the sidelines. They would never get close to where the instructor was giving aid to those who wanted to try and mount the waves.

Finally, one girl managed to mount her board and came roaring toward the natural pool from where I was watching. She had fallen numerous times before, but in the end, she had success. I clapped enthusiastically as she came close and a big smile rose on her face. She had done it. She had perservered and had succeeded.

Watching these events before my eyes brought to mind a lecture I had listened to on YouTube and an article I had read by John Maxwell just a few days before. You can find it at:

https://fightforyourfaith.blogspot.com/2021/07/failing-forward-with-john-maxwell.html

In that talk, or one similar, Maxwell shares the importance of failure in regards to success. In order to succeed, you have got to fail trying. He says we need to fail forward, not backward. Failing forward means that even though we failed, we know we are closer to success because of it. We have learned something important from the failure which will help us in our next attempt. Everyone who ever became successful failed in the process, but they didn’t let failure pull them down. They had the right perspective of failure.

Like the story of George Bernard Shaw who couldn’t public speak. He became a famous public speaker only after forcing himself to confront his difficulty by joining a debating club where he made a fool of himself innumerable times. The girl who surfed to the beach had made a fool of herself in her attempts. But she knew those failures were the price of success. She had failure in its proper perspective. Every time she fell off that board she knew she was getting closer to victory, closer to learning the trick of keeping her balance, closer to mastering the board and becoming an accomplished surfer. She was failing forward.

Those others who stayed comfortably on their boards, fearing even to attempt, never got any further. They never failed and never made a fool of themselves, or swallowed water as they fell into the surf, because they never tried. They stayed comfortable and secure but never tasted the savour of success. They never tasted the thrill of mounting both board and wave to surf esctatically toward the shore.

Friends, if we want to succeed, we need to face failure as the impostor that she is. Failure is the stepping stone to success. If you are not failing, it may very well be that you gave up trying. You have sat down in safety and security, instead of forging ahead to new goals, new challenges, new learning experiences, new failures which lead to new success.

Don’t fail backward by giving up when you fail. Failure is a prerequisite to success. Pick up your board and try again. The waters great and you’ll come home fulfilled and sleep well even though you may have aches and pains for trying. And tomorrow, you may just get up on the board and that wave and ride yourself to victory far greater than you ever thought. Remember our instructor has told us that He is able to do exceeding abundantly above all we ask or think. But we’ve got to cooperate and get up on that board even if we fail trying! In the end, if we fail forward, we will make it! Here are John Maxwell’s notes on failing backward or failing forward.

“I don’t know what obstacles you are facing in your life right now. But whatever they are doesn’t matter. What does matter is that your life can change if you’re willing to look at failure differently. You have the potential to overcome any problems, mistakes, or misfortunes. All you have to do is learn to fail forward. Look at the way any achiever approaches negative experiences, and you can learn a lot about how to fail forward. Read through these two lists, and determine which one describes your approach to failure: Think about a recent setback you experienced. How did you respond? No matter how difficult your problems were, the key to overcoming them doesn’t lie in changing your circumstances. It’s in changing yourself. That in itself is a process, and it begins with a desire to be teachable. If you’re willing to do that, then you’ll be able to handle failure. From this moment on, make a commitment to do whatever it takes to fail forward.” ~ From his book “Failing Forward”

“Failing Backward: Blaming others. Repeating the same mistake. Expecting never to fail. Expecting to continually fail. Accepting tradition blindly. Being limited by past mistakes. Thinking “I am a failure.” Quitting.”

“Failing Forward: Taking responsibility. Learning from each mistake. Knowing failure is part of the process. Maintaining a positive attitude. Challenging outdated assumptions. Taking new risks. Believing something didn’t work. Persevering.”

The picture above was actually taken the day before. The water wasn’t as rough. Some surfers are seen in the right of the page in the distance in the water. The picture below shows the natural pool. The surfers were surfing off to the left and coming towards the pool.

Happy surfing! Get up on that board and try again. Ride that wave or fail trying!

 

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Failing Forward with John Maxwell

 

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We Will Not Be Silenced!

 https://rumble.com/embed/vgq61b/?pub=4

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Como Ser Feliz - Pt 6

 

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Violence in South Africa as Tensions Burst!

 

July 14, 2021 Cape Town, South Africa Editor’s Note: Today’s letter is written by a Sovereign Man team member, Andre Bothma, who is based in South Africa. In KwaZulu-Natal province, where Zuma is from, supporters of the former president launched a massive, coordinated protest campaign against his incarceration. Freeways were blocked with burning tires. Vehicles were stoned. Trucks set alight across the province. And then the looting and arson started in Durban and Pietermaritzburg, two of the province’s largest cities. South Africa, once again, is making global headlines for all the wrong reasons. In case you missed the news, last week former President Jacob Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison for failing to appear at a corruption inquiry. It was probably a calculated risk on his part; had Zuma actually appeared at the tribunal, he may very well have been convicted and sentenced to a much harsher punishment. And when his sentence was announced, many South Africans gave a collective sigh of relief; it had been a long-overdue victory for the rule of law. But then, virtually overnight, things started falling apart -- rapidly. First it was just small shops. But then entire shopping malls were looted and burned to the ground. Once the shopping malls were in ashes, these “mostly peaceful” protesters moved on to torch distribution centers and loot cargo containers in Durban’s harbor. They even rampaged against some of the region’s critical infrastructure, going as far as setting a water treatment facility on fire. At this point the riots were still localized to the KwaZulu-Natal region, Zuma’s home turf. But then the rioters started agitating for protests to break out in Johannesburg, the country’s economic capital... Nobody thought the violence was going to spread there; Johannesburg is not a Zuma stronghold, and the locals there enjoy a much greater level of affluence than those living in Zuma’s native KwaZulu-Natal. And yet, overnight, the violence spread to Johannesburg. Bear in mind that South Africa’s national police force has been recently ‘defunded’, with a massive 11.8 billion rand (roughly $750 million) budget cut. For South Africa, that’s a staggering sum of money. So with a heavily defunded police force unable to quell the violence, more ‘mostly peaceful’ protestors rampaged across the country, specifically targeting supply chain infrastructure. On Monday night, for example, rioters brazenly looted a BLOOD BANK while being filmed on live television. As things stand today, the Johannesburg and Durban downtown areas look like war zones. I live in Cape Town, which so far hasn’t erupted. But the atmosphere here is tense; people are justifiably worried. Yesterday afternoon I came home to find a police NYALA (a NYALA is an armored 4x4 riot control vehicle) speeding past my house. And the panic buying has already begun; I waited in line for ages last night at my local grocery store, only to find that many major product categories were totally sold out. The line of cars waiting outside our local petrol station told the same story. Economic analysts and observers are now sounding the alarm over food security risks; they’re saying that all the looting and burning of major infrastructure and distribution centers could cause a food shortage. But South Africa is already running out of food-- the shortages are here! Across Durban, finding products like bread, milk and insulin for sale has become almost impossible. The few shops that are brave enough to remain open are selling loaves of bread for 4-5X the normal price. And good luck finding any petrol anywhere in the city. As of yesterday, the body count stood at 70. Over a billion dollars in damages to businesses and public infrastructure. Supply chains decimated and investor confidence gone... Thousands of retail jobs, gone for good, and even more at risk. The rational person needs to be intellectually honest about what’s happening right now: this is deliberate violence and sabotage designed to destroy critical infrastructure and terrify people, all in an effort to influence public policy (and free Jacob Zuma). But there’s a word for this: terrorism. And it’s been coming for a long time. South Africa has long been home to instability, corruption, and tension. We have politicians like Julius Malema who pour gasoline on racial tensions and threaten to seize private property. It’s clear that South Africa has been declining gradually. But then all this violence broke out very suddenly, practically overnight. As Simon often writes, it’s like how Hemingway described going bankrupt: “gradually, then suddenly.” Human beings are easily susceptible to normalcy bias-- the bizarre voice in our heads that tells us “everything will be OK” even when the warning signs are completely obvious. Our brains simply cannot comprehend that tomorrow could be radically different than today… and that our world could be turned completely upside down. It is for reasons like these that Sovereign Man consistently writes about having a Plan B, which Simon describes as something like an insurance policy. But you can’t wait until your house is already on fire before thinking about an insurance policy. Yesterday, I spoke with a successful business owner based in KwaZulu-Natal. He runs a franchise business, and scores of shops just like his have already been looted and burned to the ground nearby. He and his wife are almost at retirement age, and have had the means to get a Plan B in place for at least the last decade. But they didn’t. They procrastinated. They put off taking action because there was no clear and present threat compelling them to do so. Now, at a time where literally no one in their right mind wants to buy commercial property in their city, they are looking to liquidate their assets to get a Portuguese Golden Visa, which gives them a flexible second residency option in Europe. Given that the application process takes several months to complete, even outside of Covid times, they’re way too late. Having a great Plan B requires NOT procrastinating… and taking the appropriate steps for your situation BEFORE anything terrible happens, while you still have the resources and presence of mind to do so. Because if you wait until the proverbial hits the fan, you’ll probably be too frantic and panicked to be thinking clearly about rational solutions. Don’t give in to normalcy bias and assume that everything will always be OK. The last 18 months should be reminder enough that things can (and do) change very quickly. Two weeks ago, South Africa was still a relatively well-functioning country. Yet the “civil” in civil society has been proven to be a precariously thin veneer. To your freedom, Team Sovereign Man Dennis Edwards: Another warning to all of us wherever we are. Some predicted violence would erupt in poor nations as a result of the Covid - 19 restrictions and lock downs last year. Are we seeing the beginning of them now? Will more places erupt, also? Aready Cuba, Columbia, Haiti and Eithiopia are having problems, some of the poorer nations on the earth. A wise man sees the evil that will come and prepares himself. It is wise to have some survival food and water in case of emergency. It is wise to be in community with others in your area so that you might find help in time of need. It is wise to be helping others as much as you can now, for they may help you in the future. It is wise to start your day with God and learn to follow His daily whispers to your heart, so that you learn to be in tune with Him. It may save your life today and in the future. It is wise to pray and prepare today, to do what you can today, for tomorrow may be too late.

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