Exercise Inspiration for Brian, (and others but very lengthy)
Back in 1990 on a trip back to her birthplace, in Greece, my late mother and my late aunt came upon the town priest walking to church one Sunday and asked him if he would like a ride. The parish priest, then in his 80's, said, "No thanks. The day that I stop walking to church on Sunday is the day I will leave this world to meet the Lord." He is still the parish priest in my mother's home town today. Both my mother and my aunt have already left this world.
By the way, on my profile is this posting. Guess it tells why I believe in God very well, as it describes a real life experience of a day I never will forget. I posted it in response to the posted question: "Do you believe in God?"
Do I believe in God?
I gave this rather long winded answer to a post today and I know I will get email about it. In general I do not preach my religious beliefs here or anywhere on OH, the person posting was struggling with if there was a God and was her co-worker correct in saying that God was punishing her and that that was why she was obese. Since we are here to share experiences I posted this even though this isn't directly about WSL. This is what happened to me on the day I first came to realize that there is a loving, caring, forgiving God.
YES I BELIEVE IN GOD!
Let me tell you what once happened to me and you can decide for yourself. This is a true event I will never forget.
As a young man I hired into a steel mill and worked on a pouring teem, the group of men that use to work where nearly 3000 degrees molten steel is poured into ingot molds to be later rolled into the sheets of steel that our cars and other steel items are made from. It was a dangerous job that required standing at the edge of a platform, eight foot above the pit below, with the ingot molds, that the molten steel is poured into, at your foot level, just a few inches from where you must stand. Each heat, (batch of molten steel) was brought to the pouring platform in a huge 350 ton ladle hanging from the overhead crane. The casting crew would open a stopper valve at the bottom of the ladle, with wheel on the side of the ladle, and orange, flaming fiery, hot, molten steel would pour out into the molds only inches from our feet. We would then put a two foot wide, six foot long, six inch deep rectangular steel pan on top of the molten steel and toss a water hose, that had a steel pipe at the end, into the pan to fill it with water to cap (cool the top) the steel.
One day, in my haste, I missed and tossed the water hose directly into the molten steel of a mold right at my feet. There was no time to react. I knew that in seconds the water trapped beneath the hot, molten steel would become super compressed steam and that an explosion was eminent. All I could do was stand there and accept my fate. I was going to die. I watched as tons of molten steel was blasted 200 feet into the air, punching a whole through the roof of the building and coming down towards me. I remember seeing orange rain all around. My protective heat resistant safety clothing and gear was only designed to protect me from the searing radiant heat, but nothing could save me from a direct stream of molten steel.
I knew that the severity of the burns would sear nerve endings so if I was feeling no pain that it was shock and I was just a walking dead man. When it all stopped coming down I finished my last prayer and discovered that there was molten steel all around me, but that I was standing on the only spot on the platform where there was none, as if was on a little dry island in an ocean of molten lava. I was untouched, though my outer protective layers of my safety suit was scorched, I was not! I looked up and saw that there was nothing overhead that should have protected me. Nothing but God. I say my thanks to him everyday.
When I left the platform, walking out of the orange lit steamy mist, my co-worker could not believe that anyone could have survived that. I could hear ambulances were already on their way and the coroner, I was later told, had already been called. When a co-worker asked "how did you survive that" I answered "God sent a guardian angle to hold and umbrella open above me."
I did not live a very Godly life at that time, not at all! So does that sound like a punishing God? I think he tries to save even sinners like me, but decide for yourself. When you do try and imagine seeing that wall of fire, that I saw that day, coming at you and living to tell about it without a loving, forgiving God.
Thank you again Lord
By the way, on my profile is this posting. Guess it tells why I believe in God very well, as it describes a real life experience of a day I never will forget. I posted it in response to the posted question: "Do you believe in God?"
Do I believe in God?
I gave this rather long winded answer to a post today and I know I will get email about it. In general I do not preach my religious beliefs here or anywhere on OH, the person posting was struggling with if there was a God and was her co-worker correct in saying that God was punishing her and that that was why she was obese. Since we are here to share experiences I posted this even though this isn't directly about WSL. This is what happened to me on the day I first came to realize that there is a loving, caring, forgiving God.
YES I BELIEVE IN GOD!
Let me tell you what once happened to me and you can decide for yourself. This is a true event I will never forget.
As a young man I hired into a steel mill and worked on a pouring teem, the group of men that use to work where nearly 3000 degrees molten steel is poured into ingot molds to be later rolled into the sheets of steel that our cars and other steel items are made from. It was a dangerous job that required standing at the edge of a platform, eight foot above the pit below, with the ingot molds, that the molten steel is poured into, at your foot level, just a few inches from where you must stand. Each heat, (batch of molten steel) was brought to the pouring platform in a huge 350 ton ladle hanging from the overhead crane. The casting crew would open a stopper valve at the bottom of the ladle, with wheel on the side of the ladle, and orange, flaming fiery, hot, molten steel would pour out into the molds only inches from our feet. We would then put a two foot wide, six foot long, six inch deep rectangular steel pan on top of the molten steel and toss a water hose, that had a steel pipe at the end, into the pan to fill it with water to cap (cool the top) the steel.
One day, in my haste, I missed and tossed the water hose directly into the molten steel of a mold right at my feet. There was no time to react. I knew that in seconds the water trapped beneath the hot, molten steel would become super compressed steam and that an explosion was eminent. All I could do was stand there and accept my fate. I was going to die. I watched as tons of molten steel was blasted 200 feet into the air, punching a whole through the roof of the building and coming down towards me. I remember seeing orange rain all around. My protective heat resistant safety clothing and gear was only designed to protect me from the searing radiant heat, but nothing could save me from a direct stream of molten steel.
I knew that the severity of the burns would sear nerve endings so if I was feeling no pain that it was shock and I was just a walking dead man. When it all stopped coming down I finished my last prayer and discovered that there was molten steel all around me, but that I was standing on the only spot on the platform where there was none, as if was on a little dry island in an ocean of molten lava. I was untouched, though my outer protective layers of my safety suit was scorched, I was not! I looked up and saw that there was nothing overhead that should have protected me. Nothing but God. I say my thanks to him everyday.
When I left the platform, walking out of the orange lit steamy mist, my co-worker could not believe that anyone could have survived that. I could hear ambulances were already on their way and the coroner, I was later told, had already been called. When a co-worker asked "how did you survive that" I answered "God sent a guardian angle to hold and umbrella open above me."
I did not live a very Godly life at that time, not at all! So does that sound like a punishing God? I think he tries to save even sinners like me, but decide for yourself. When you do try and imagine seeing that wall of fire, that I saw that day, coming at you and living to tell about it without a loving, forgiving God.
Thank you again Lord
"I refuse to measure success in pounds lost, but rather in life gained!"
Nick
Nick
Thanks for the witness, Nick. God is so much happier when sinners are "caught" with the sweet honey of love and not with the vinegar of punishment. And the tie to WLS is that you have many more years ahead of you to share your story. (Yeah, it's a weak tie, but, hey, it brings it back to WLS!)
Like you, I am aware of keeping this particular forum to WLS topics, but there are times when there is a moral/faith dilemma on the WLS journey. If I can add a helpful voice, I'm grateful - but I'm here to talk and learn and share about WLS first and foremost. I have other forums for theological ramblings!
Like you, I am aware of keeping this particular forum to WLS topics, but there are times when there is a moral/faith dilemma on the WLS journey. If I can add a helpful voice, I'm grateful - but I'm here to talk and learn and share about WLS first and foremost. I have other forums for theological ramblings!
Onward and DOWNward,
Brian Burke - Wellington OH
Brian Burke - Wellington OH
While I agree with you that we often leave God out of our lives when we shouldn't, I didn't really mean this to be that much of a preaching of the Lord as much as an example of how precious our lives are and how our choices make the difference. Perhaps I should have edited the original post to better fit the forum. Guess the year my parents sent me to the seminary actually set in a bit. OK, not a lot, but a bit.
Pax vobiscum.
Pax vobiscum.
"I refuse to measure success in pounds lost, but rather in life gained!"
Nick
Nick
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