Sharpening the blade

Sharpening the blade

Right now I am studying for my semester final for college algebra. I didn’t realize how little I knew about algebra until I got into the class. I literally guessed my way through the first half of the class. Only because of my experience with BE&E in the Navy and Diving Physics in BUD/s training where I figured out with math and algebra it is all about exposure have I even stayed in the class. I have until the 11^th of the month to bone up on solving the vertex of a parabola, synthetic division, utilizing the quadratic formula, utilizing the compound interest formula and the determinant of a matrix. I also have to complete a thesis on homeschooling for English and writing my final research paper on HB-106.

That is the easy part. Last night one of the young men I know from Toastmasters got married and the Rio Grande Valley Toastmasters threw him and his new wife a reception. It was a great event for the new couple. Relationships are more complicated that mathematics or algebra equation couple ever be. Even when you know the formula, either it changes or there is turbulence during the process of working through it. You can’t guess either.

This weekend at Center Church there was a lot going on, Pastor Elias had Major Elliot from the Israeli Defense Force give us a briefing on the Middle East and then the rest of the world. It always happens with me, I want to get some gear together and start preparing and planning and everyone else applauds but there doesn’t seem to be any organization to join and train with. Then Saturday at the men’s bible study we completed a survey to find our gifts and talents and mine seem to be teaching. My mom was a teacher, her mom was a teacher and my dad’s mom was a teacher but I didn’t want to get into that field. Then I joined the Navy and that’s what did. I became awarded “Master Training Specialist”. So when I had an opportunity to go back to school, I decided to go for an associate’s degree in mathematics and a teaching credential. I want to work with those boys like me. The ones not afraid to spar with heavyweights but run away from math problems.

I know I won’t make a lot of money teaching but I can take my teaching ability and conduct seminar marketing for new technologies like LED Lighting, drone technologies, geospatial and new optics. My wife is teaching leadership to middle school students in hopes to keep them out of the teen parent program. I am thinking that I can encourage and stimulate young men and keep them out of drugs, gangs and into college and meaningful careers. There is an underlying secret which is just to keep yourself surrounded by those who know the answers. I had a mortgage broker who was a former Navy SEAL with an NBA and went to law school who used to say “Everything is easy when you know the answers”. Being around those who have the answers is the key. Having the right association.

God will put you in the right circles or back in the right circles when you figure out who you really want to be. Lately that has been happening to me. Getting reconnected with former Navy SEALs I used to work with who are now into technologies. It is exciting. We have a lot in common and mutual respect for each other. We already know each other so the ice is broken. It feels good when they call. This is something else I can promote to these young people I want to influence.

 

 

Knowing his voice and feeling his presence

Knowing his voice and feeling his presence

 I ran the first every all Navy Marathon the end of November 1984 in three hours and 54 minutes. I was so sore and stiff and could hardly walk. I couldn’t run for two weeks after that. Then I checked into BUD/s for class 133 and running wasn’t my strong suit. I caught pneumonia during Hell Week and my performance dropped off significantly. Long story short, was dropped from training for performance and I went back to Pensacola and I had to completely rehabilitate my body, I caught every ailment going around but I refused to take any anti-biotics, I just boned up and vitamins and kept working out and I started training for the all Navy Marathon again. 50 miles a week, 12 to 14 mile on Tuesday and Thursday and four to six miles on Monday and Wednesday, no running on Fridays and either a five or ten K race or intervals at the Corey Station track. The second time I ran the Blue Angel Marathon they changed the date to early January. I reapplied to BUD/s for the sixth time and November 1995 and I was declined. I had to put in a 20 mile run so I decided to do it that Friday. I headed out the back gate of NAS Pensacola, 10 miles out and 10 miles back. I ran and I cried and ran and I cried the whole way. That next Monday they had command pictures and my division Chief Mike McDonald had to come in in his blues and he wasn’t happy, he had made Master Chief but had been pulled over for DUI that weekend. I came up stairs after teaching a class and I said “It’s such a beautiful day, I think I am going to run another 20 miles!” to which Mike replied “God damn it Red!” My immediate thought was “Oh no, this guy has killed people and he is mad at me” then he finished and said “Your so Fucking motivated, we’re going to get you back into training”.

So were got a MAC flight to Washington DC and went to the Pentagon and Mike guaranteed in writing that I would make it through training. I came back and got ready for the race. I had a running partner, this redheaded ninth grader who I would always over take just at the end of every 5k or 10k race we competed in together. I figured that he would regulate my pace. Well we took off and out slit times at two miles were under six minute miles. The only hill on the race was on Palafox between Garden and Cervantes. He fell back, this was the 14 miles mark. I started to feel the wall right when I went through the front gate of NAS Pensacola for the last few miles. The road by the golf course is banks and that really effected my ankles. When I finally turned off of the golf course road, the last mile and a half was Barrancas road which went right by fort Barrancas. Every muscle and tendon in my legs felt like it were at its snapping point but I started singing “Jesus Loves me” outload as I was running and I just opened up my stride and I had this image that Christ was standing behind me as big as a mountain gently with his hand on the back of my hand on the back of my head. I just kept running and passing people along the way and then when I reached the quarter mile point which I knew because this last mile and a half of the race was along my training course I ran every day. I opened up to a full sprint singing Jesus Loves me the whole way. I passed 12 other runners the last mile of the race and I finished in three hours 14 minutes and one second. I was running again the next day.

I made IC3 in March, got excepted to BUD/s class 141 right after that and the rest I history but that feeling of Christ in my presence hasn’t left me, I don’t hear an audible voice but I know when he is speaking to me. I have been hearing a lot lately about “Finding our purpose in God and Christ”. I know he is telling me to be that mentor to young men, the ones who are striving to make their place in the world but don’t have a pattern or model to follow. Everything I am doing right now is with that purpose in mind. Just lately I am realizing that seeking his approval and recognition is all that is important.

When I first started going to Center Church I heard one of the guys at the Men’s bible study telling about their outreach group being force out of a neighborhood by the cartels. I could feel the righteous anger stirring inside of me. I wanted to round up every former Navy SEAL and Special Forces guy I could find in the Texas and clean house. But then I was reading my assignment for my college algebra class on “Argumentative writing” I also have to give a speech on a controversial topic for Toastmasters and I am choosing “The Legalization of Drugs”. The biggest objections are the morality of it but if it can pull the teeth of the cartels so neighborhood outreach groups like the one at Center Church can reach people whom they can’t now, it will solve the really cause of drug use and addiction.

That is what God’s voice is telling me now.

Looking for love and I found gratitude

Looking for love and I found gratitude

The other night I was looking for a biblical verse pertaining to gratitude. I looked through the glossary and I didn’t see anything. Then this morning I was looking for the passage where Paul talks about love and I opened up to  and passage on gratitude: Philippians 1:3 I thank my God every time I remember you. 4 In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy 5 because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, 6 being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus. 7 It is right for me to feel this way about all of you, since I have you in my heart and, whether I am in chains or defending and confirming the gospel, all of you share in God's grace with me. 8 God can testify how I long for all of you with the affection of Christ Jesus. 9 And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, 10 so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, 11 filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ-to the glory and praise of God.

Then I found the passages I was looking for 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.

Then I found what I was looking for in Ephesians 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish. Even so husbands should love their wives as their own bodies. He who loves his wife loves himself. For no man ever hates his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it as Christ does the church, because we are members of his body. "For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one." This is a great mystery, and I take it to mean Christ and the church. Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself and let the wife see that she respects her husband; (Ephesians 5:25-33 RSV)

I believe I read it in one of Denis Waitley’s books a definition that I liked: Choosing only that which is good and giving value to others.

I’ve learned in previous relationships that sex isn’t love. I have researched this before and I found a scripture pertaining to protection and providing:  "Anyone who does not provide for their relatives, and especially for their own household, has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” 1 Timothy 5:8, “Husbands, love your wives and do not be harsh with them” Colossians 3:19 and “Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers” 1 Peter 3:7.

Now when I mix this all up in my head it makes me think of how I love my son’s Devin when he was two years old was mean, defiant and raging but I still loved him. Collin was more withdrawn, he would spurn me and put the shun on me but I still love him. So if men including myself love their wives in the same way. It shouldn’t matter how our wife acts towards us. We still need to love them. That is so hard. I remember going through my divorce. It hurt so badly when my ex-wife was being harsh with me. I couldn’t take it. She had made up her mind that we were going to be no longer and I couldn’t be forgiving enough or gracious enough. She was moving on and she made herself so vile I just had to let go.

She always told me that “Love is a decision” That works until someone changes their mind. After going through all of this, I am grateful that Jesus gives us unconditional love. It has taken me a while to realize that that is the love that really matters and it makes it easier to love our wives and our children no Matter how much they don’t love you back. One isn’t a factor of the other.

 

 

I do not have a new job!

I do not have a new job!

I want to thank everyone who is congratulating me on my new position with CSP Strategies but this is not a new job for me. I still run Valley LED Solutions as a manufacturer’s rep and before I explain my relationship with CSP Strategies want to explain my end goal. I currently attend South Texas College studying for an Associates degree in Mathematics and a teaching credential so I can work with those young people who were like me that are capable, ambitious and eager but lack the understanding or confidence to take on algebra, calculus and physics. Then I plan on capitalizing on my training background doing seminar marketing of new technologies whether it is LED Lighting, drones, sensors….etc. This technology to detect and deter drones is all part of the plan. I also represent FAVNET for remote connectivity applications.  

Being the correctness they can see

Being the correctness they can see

When things change so does your perspective. I have been struggling with college algebra and last week I locked myself away for two days at home to try and figure out synthetic division. I got mad and watched the same video three of four times until all of a sudden I caught that one little thing that was holding me up. Then the problems added a new twist and I went to the CLE and sat with three tutors until they brought in the head tutor and we painstakingly went through a “Zeros Theorem” problem step by step and finding all compliments that make up the zeros of a polynomial function until it made sense to me and then Thursday I sat with my assigned tutor and we went over graphing rational functions and asymptotes and the compound interest formula. Now I got excited, after all I was a California Mortgage and Real-Estate Broker and held my Life and Health, Series 6, 63 and passed my investment advisor’s license exams. I didn’t know that formula but I knew the rule of 72 so I back engineered the problem using the rule of 72 and I got to the right answer as fast as my tutor did using the formula but I think that formula might come in handy so I am going to learn it.

Now as I am working through all of this algebra I get a call out of the blue from a retired Naval Intelligence officer who then retired as an analysist for the FBI asking if I know anyone who served in the invasion of Grenada. Well I happen to know a few and they had some great stories. Somehow a couple of guys have been able to work with Hollywood to consult for some movies but the others signed nondisclosure agreements and don’t want the hassle of reversing them but the best story I was told was how a couple of guys I know who were given the mission to go to the Governor’s mansion to rescue the Governor but when they got there no one was there. They went inside and one of them fired a couple of rounds out of an open window and they got the attention of an Armored Personnel Carrier with a 105 howitzer turret. The turret turned toward the mansion and they all dove on the floor, hunkered down on the baseboards as the 105 round went right through the room without exploding. The senior team leading pulled out a can of Copenhagen and as he was pinching a dip to put into his lips said “All you need to relax is a little pinch between your cheek and gum.”       

There were a lot of other great stories from those guys. From what I understand enough time has passed since that operation that it can be disclosed and I guess the producer is going to get official authorization because there were a lot of things that happened and it was one of the first operations where SEAL Team Six actually played a major role. The funny thing is, the very next day I stumbled on the senior team leader who gave the Tabaco tagline while in the Governor’s mansion and we friended each other on Facebook. How did that happen? I love those guys. They kept Copenhagen in business.

I started chewing Copenhagen when I was seven years old. My step-dad got me started. He caught me spitting in an ashtray and I got a whipping and he told me “If you are going to chew Copenhagen you better learn to swallow like a man. That was a challenge. I figured out that if you swallow the juice before it builds up, it is not too bad except you get the hiccups. Then when I got really serious into boxing at 19 years old I started trying to quit. 11 years later I finally accomplished that goal. The trick is eating carrots. There is something in carrots that curb your appetite for nicotine. 

It gets hard hearing about my friends from the Navy SEALs who die, either in combat or as a result of living hard. Smoking or drinking too much. That is going to be one of my main messages when I start regularly working with kids. It is always easier to give them direction when they are young. Emphasize the right habits, eat healthy, stay fit, not drinking or doing drugs. Being a good example has lasting impact on those around you. I believe the majority at least know the right things to do. Being an example of living right makes it easy to lead. I remember from Free Fall Jumpmaster School, they taught you to look for correctness. You stand out when you give something to look at. People know when what they see is right and when it isn’t.