So here we are again, on our happy and familiar year end holiday, spent with my family down in Port Elizabeth. 2021... Quite a year this one! Headline items at a national and international level once again seemed to take the spotlight... Durban riots, COVID variants & passports, vrot policies, vrotter economies, and the vrotest politicians!
But on the home front, and somewhat surprising, I've never been work busier (contracting as a backend business admin and reporter), church happier (churching with a couple friends at a home church in the area), body stronger (having achieved minimum SEAL standards💪), marriage matured (learning to love my wife as much as myself), and dad friendlier (being kind and caring to my kids even when I don't like them). Of course this is my perspective, but need not be verified by my wife or kids at all!
Or to describe it in blackjack terms, only a 5 card trick could have improved my 2021 hand... Which I suppose would have included the successful launch of Eduship, being the future school concept that Dannean and I went to market with in July this year. In the end however, parent response was underwhelming, and with less than 10 (rather than 30) prospective spaces filled, we had to rethink and recalibrate... But in the end, our desire to still give Eduship a shot at home prevailed, with Tristan (reluctantly) and Connor (enthusiastically) being our 1st 2 students... kicking off in January 2022.
In this regard, Dannean will play the role of scholarship (academic) tutor in the mornings, and I the role of dadmaster in the afternoons (covering the garageship, mentorship and ambassadorship elements). And so, at worst, this time next year Eduship will be packed away as yet another one of my hairbrain ideas, or at best, a transformative schooling solution with room and demand for growth and educational transformation. Anyway, it remains no coincidence that Teddy Roosevelts 'Man in the Arena' speech hangs proudly on our wall at home, and our family coat of arms bumper sticker on the back of my van, boldly displays perseverance as one of our 3 core values. Because we all need to be constantly reminded, that talk is cheap and fear (not failure) is failure!
So, now that I've beaten my 'man in the arena' chest and drum, let me humbly add... Discerning the difference between mine and God's will, easily remains the most difficulty quest of my life to date. There is much I have prayerfully tried, tested and gloriously failed at... Much and gloriously! And yet... I am deeply humbled and incredibly grateful, that I remain loved by my wife, the greatest object of my children's affection, cared for by my family, and befriended (not on Facebook!) by many of the most wonderful and precious people! But even more than all of this, I have come to love as deeply as I know how, both the creator of the universe, and the one who knit me in my mother's womb... Jesus. Is this not grace upon grace?!
Finally, and probably most intriguing (and disturbing) of all for me this year, has been the unparalleled (and largely unopposed) global emergence of totalitarian rule in traditionally free / Western societies. Of course, this should come as no surprise to anyone who holds a biblical worldview of church eschatology (end times)... Which makes a good case that for the 1st time ever, there is a real possibility we are eye witnesses to a radical step change in the way the world is run and governed. Or said another way by a very good friend of mine...
Most people still think we live in democracies, where our trusty governments and the other powerful actors are fighting Covid for our safety, and that their democratically elected officials are making decisions in the interests of public health and wellbeing. They have no idea this pandemic is merely the cloak veiling a take-over of our free and democratic societies by autocrats with an agenda. They are stuck in the Matrix carrying on with their lives oblivious to the power transfer that is happening under our noses because its all been cloaked in the Covid narrative, dutifully propagated by the captured media and big tech, and parroted by captured officials and big business spokesmen.
If this statement peaks your interest (or your blood pressure), you can read more about why my friend says what he does here. Needless to say, we are keeping a close eye (as Jesus said we should) on what is being sold on mass as the new normal. Personally, I don't think there's anything normal about any of it, but time will tell the crazies, from the lemmings, from the wise. As my brother often says, faith and stupidity sometimes walk a fine line together, and can look remarkably similar at times... And these are such times I believe!
Stay blessed, classy and fearless friends... 2022 is just around the corner!
Maranatha!🙏
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