{"id":521,"date":"2021-10-25T20:49:55","date_gmt":"2021-10-25T20:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/?p=521"},"modified":"2021-10-25T20:49:55","modified_gmt":"2021-10-25T20:49:55","slug":"a-few-things-i-have-learned","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/?p=521","title":{"rendered":"A FEW THINGS I HAVE LEARNED"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">A FEW THOUGHTS<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">I recently celebrated 60 years of marriage with Barbara and now my 80th Birthday.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">I have enough life experience to realize:<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">The important things in life are people, not stuff.<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Love makes life good and rich.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Live life fully. I have more regrets over what I didn\u2019t do than over what I did.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Life is meaningless without a Spiritual Aspect.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Life should be a search for truth.\u00a0 Focus on the truth and the change it demands right up to the last day.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">You could be wrong about some things.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">You can be friends with people with whom you disagree.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Be a Follower of Jesus more than being active in church. \u00a0 Sometimes those may not be congruent.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Not everyone who attends church and keeps the rules is a Follower of Jesus.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Many people who seldom attend Church and break many rules are Following Jesus.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Be willing to break the mold and go your own way.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">The Narrow Path may not be off the main path. It may simply be going against the flow in the opposite direction.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">The Broad Way may be going with the crowd.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Be willing to break some rules. Jesus did.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Don\u2019t confuse Church Culture and Following Jesus.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Followers of Jesus don\u2019t all look alike. Some are Socially acceptable. Others have multi-colored hair, tattoos and a police record.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Don\u2019t judge people by where they are in life. We didn\u2019t all have the same starting point. Some have already traveled far further than you ever will. Don\u2019t feel more \u201cSpiritual\u201d than others.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Followers of Jesus should be known for what they do rather than what they don\u2019t do.\u00a0 It is easier to practice a \u201cdon\u2019t\/against\/withdraw\u201d religion than it is a \u201cpositive\/engage the world\u201d religion.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">If there is a person you really dislike, remember Jesus loves them as much as he does you.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Churches can easily become fortresses focused on defense rather than outpost retaking what Satan has wrongfully occupied. Jesus did say that the church would not be defeated.\u00a0 He said we could go to the very gates of hell to rescue those who have lost their way.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Original Sin seems to have been wanting to be God. When we judge others, we are doing it again.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Jesus didn\u2019t praise many religious people.\u00a0 He seemed to think they focused more on religion and themselves rather than having a focus on God and others.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Followers of Jesus seem to end up serving other people.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">It is hard to Follow Jesus while deeply involved in a bureaucracy\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"color: #000000;\"><span style=\"font-family: Arial;\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">Surface living is really good until it isn\u2019t. Then you better have a foundation under it.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A FEW THOUGHTS I recently celebrated 60 years of marriage with Barbara and now my 80th Birthday.\u00a0 I have enough life experience to realize: The important things in life are people, not stuff. Love makes life good and rich.\u00a0\u00a0 Live life fully. I have more regrets over what I didn\u2019t do than over what I [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ocean_front_end_style_editor":"no","ocean_post_layout":"","ocean_both_sidebars_style":"","ocean_both_sidebars_content_width":0,"ocean_both_sidebars_sidebars_width":0,"ocean_sidebar":"0","ocean_second_sidebar":"0","ocean_disable_margins":"enable","ocean_add_body_class":"","ocean_shortcode_before_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_after_top_bar":"","ocean_shortcode_before_header":"","ocean_shortcode_after_header":"","ocean_has_shortcode":"","ocean_shortcode_after_title":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_widgets":"","ocean_shortcode_before_footer_bottom":"","ocean_shortcode_after_footer_bottom":"","ocean_display_top_bar":"default","ocean_display_header":"default","ocean_header_style":"","ocean_center_header_left_menu":"0","ocean_custom_header_template":"0","ocean_custom_logo":0,"ocean_custom_retina_logo":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_width":0,"ocean_custom_logo_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_tablet_max_height":0,"ocean_custom_logo_mobile_max_height":0,"ocean_header_custom_menu":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_family":"0","ocean_menu_typo_font_subset":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_size":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_font_size_unit":"px","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_font_weight_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_tablet":"","ocean_menu_typo_transform_mobile":"","ocean_menu_typo_line_height":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_line_height_unit":"","ocean_menu_typo_spacing":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_tablet":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_mobile":0,"ocean_menu_typo_spacing_unit":"","ocean_menu_link_color":"","ocean_menu_link_color_hover":"","ocean_menu_link_color_active":"","ocean_menu_link_background":"","ocean_menu_link_hover_background":"","ocean_menu_link_active_background":"","ocean_menu_social_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_bg":"","ocean_menu_social_links_color":"","ocean_menu_social_hover_links_color":"","ocean_disable_title":"default","ocean_disable_heading":"default","ocean_post_title":"","ocean_post_subheading":"","ocean_post_title_style":"","ocean_post_title_background_color":"","ocean_post_title_background":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_image_position":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_attachment":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_repeat":"","ocean_post_title_bg_image_size":"","ocean_post_title_height":0,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay":0.5,"ocean_post_title_bg_overlay_color":"","ocean_disable_breadcrumbs":"default","ocean_breadcrumbs_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_separator_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_color":"","ocean_breadcrumbs_links_hover_color":"","ocean_display_footer_widgets":"default","ocean_display_footer_bottom":"default","ocean_custom_footer_template":"0","ocean_post_oembed":"","ocean_post_self_hosted_media":"","ocean_post_video_embed":"","ocean_link_format":"","ocean_link_format_target":"self","ocean_quote_format":"","ocean_quote_format_link":"post","ocean_gallery_link_images":"off","ocean_gallery_id":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-521","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=521"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":522,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521\/revisions\/522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/calvinlangton.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}