I’m Pressing On

When you’re feeling down and can’t go on, I hope you find the courage to say…

I’m pressing on
Pressing on, all my distress is going, going, gone
Pressing on, pressing on
And I won’t sit back, and take this anymore
‘Cause I’m done with that
I’ve got one foot out the door
And to go back where I was would just be wrong
I’m pressing on
-Relient K

I don’t feel like writing right now. I want to fall asleep.
My energy is low and writing requires thinking.

• Thinking,
• pondering,
• contemplating,
• remembering,
• dissecting words,
• concentration,
• focus
• and a determination to persevere.

I’m Pressing On.

And I just want to shut down.
But I can’t shut down.
I’ll walk around drowsy and sleepy but as soon as I lay down on my mattress and my head hits the pillow
and cuddle up with the blanket my wife gave to me as a Christmas present 15 years ago
and hug my stuffed horse called Lovely Horse we got from somewhere, I don’t know where

BOOM!

Fully Awake.

I lay there hoping listening to calming music and the sound of waves I’ll just drift off.
Sometimes I do.
For a little while.
Then awake again.

The pursuit of wanting to write sometimes keeps me going but lately I’ve been discouraged.
I don’t get a lot of readers.
I don’t get a lot of comments.
My own wife doesn’t read my posts.
I can’t get draw a lot of interest in the various different topics I want to share with
my friends, family and anyone else who might want to engage with the things I’ve chosen to write about
But I’ve been given a platform to write and a desire to write and I think talent to write so with that in mind

I’m Pressing On.

I don’t think God wants me to quit yet either.
I dropped my wife off at a friends house for a week.
I’m alone living the bachelor life and waiting till I pick her up again so I don’t have to be alone.
I realize that this is just a practice run for the day she may go away to move in her heavenly mansion
and we won’t see each other again till eternity.
Or that could happen to me.

Kristin’s friend Jean just recently lost her husband several months back.
So she is experiencing that type of loss all ready.
But with other’s help and this week Kristin’s, she is has the attitude of

I’m Pressing On.

She and her husband Charly were the foster parents of several kids over the years.
One of them was Tyrese.
His sister was our adopted daughter Princess.

I went to get pizza for dinner.
I get to the take-out window of the restaurant and say who I was and what I was picking up.
$37.50 the girl tells me.
I respond with $ 37 for a Large pizza?????
Yes.
$37!!!!
And when I get it it was not what I typically think of as a Large Pizza.

But instead I get one of these…

Sometimes life surprises you. You have to be ready for life not to go as planned.

Before you cross the street
Take my hand
Life is what happens to you
While you’re busy making other plans
-John Lennon, Beautiful Boy

Kristin and I go back to the car and I have her hold the giant humongo pizza while I pull the car out. I wouldn’t have been able to open the door wide enough to get Kristin and the pizza in, in the very narrow parking space we were parked in. I pull out she gets in and there is a car waiting for me to move. I move and drive to the exit of the parking lot. The GPS was giving me a choice of directions to choose from in which way to get back to Jean’s place. That combined with the the high price, the large size and the person in back of me unnerved me so I quickly looked in both directions and pulled out and went left instead of straight ahead only to have a car immediately cross pass the spot where I crossed over beeping their horn at me. I had a near miss. I should have been more alert. I got distracted and I lost the sense of carefully looking at my surroundings.

On my way home from work tonight my eyes started stinging. My eyes water when I yawn and I tried to wipe them with my dirty work shirt as I had nothing else to wipe it with. My hands or shirt might have had the residue of onions on it as I cut a lot of onions that day. I think that may have stung my eyes. They wanted to close but I kept them open and I didn’t surve or drift to the side of the road or hit anything. In both instances surprise or other things kept my eyes off where I was going. But God didn’t want me to die. Not yet. I believe that He held back possible death or injury for me and Kristin and other people perhaps as well. This will not always be the case. Someday he will let the blow of death hit me. But for now he wants me to live. So..

I’m Pressing On.

Kristin and I went to a Maronite liturgical service to experience another legit form of liturgy for our Sunday obligation and the priest gave a great homily on perseverance.

So as long as God lets you live you can press on. If you have set backs you can preserve. Thomas Edison didn’t succeed with the lightbulb right away.

I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.
-Thomas A. Edison

Walt Disney failed lots of times before striking gold with Mickey Mouse.

“Get a good idea and stay with it. Dog it, and work at it until it’s done right. ”
― Walt Disney

And then there’s St. Paul..

[I’ve had] far more labors, in far more imprisonments, beaten times without number, often in danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews thirty-nine lashes. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked, a night and a day I have spent adrift at sea.  have been on frequent journeys, in dangers from rivers, dangers from robbers, dangers from my countrymen, dangers from the Gentiles, dangers in the city, dangers in the wilderness, dangers at sea, dangers among false brothers;  I have been in labor and hardship, through many sleepless nights, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and  exposure. Apart from such  external things, there is the daily pressure on me of concern for all the churches.  2 Corinthians 11: 23 – 28

This sounds more tiring than what I am going through. It sounds as if God wanted Paul to continue on living.

Not that I have already grasped it all or have already become perfect, but I press on if I may also take hold of that for which I was even taken hold of by Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12

I didn’t feel like writing this and I did anyway. I pressed on. If this helps at least one person press on, I guess it will have been worth it.

So whatever problem your having don’t give up. Along with myself, Edison, Disney and St. Paul develop the attitude with the grace of the Holy Spirit and say

I’m Pressing On.

My problems are my problems and they are small potatoes compared to what some people are going through. For a better example of pressing on, watch and listen to Catholic apologist Trent Horn and his wife Laura talk about their recent cancer diagnosis, what they’ve learned spiritually from this trial, and how you can help them.