frankly speaking: DONT GIVE UP

Sometimes these blogs

need a

FOREWORD

even a

FOREWARNING

This one sure does.

This week I set out

to tell a tale about

TRUTH

It's a great little story.

It's a true story.

Names were adjusted

to protect the innocent

and the not so innocent

for that matter.

Well, truth to tell,

I got carried away

with setting up things

about truth

and its abuse

in our body politic

just now

- occupational hazard.

Ended up with a full piece on

"No matter how beat-up

truth gets it always wins

AND

here's how to live

good and clean and real

in the middle of the mess."

That sure is a

run-on sentence about

about a run-on blog.

It's occasioned by our current

plight public

bedrock truth

politically undermined

and trashed.

Some of the imagery

is blunt and graphic.

So, please be forewarned

and I pray,

open to some strong

Truth Telling.

Hope you'll be expansive.

and prayerfully mull

all this over.

But, if you're in a hurry,

just skip down to

TRUTH STORY

Hey, thanks for

the indulgence

(By the way, everyone

who reads this week's

entire posting gets

40 days off their

Purgatory Stint

for their indulgence).

John Frank

******

Dear All of Us,

It's news to none,

nor new to comment here.

Things are pretty

messy and miserable

with the body politic these days.

Lots of us are tempted to give up.

Lots more already have.

Governance is up for grabs.

And what a grabbing and grouping.

Prurient politics.

Truth and justice fondled foul.

Truth and justice perverted.

Truth and justice raped.

Much too many standby,

passively inert, immorally tolerant.

And all this debasement

right out in the open,

right in front of the children,

all over the media.

Were it sexual, the predators

would be run out of town,

locked up for a long time.

We're a lot more moral about

sex abuse than abuse of the

body politic and of truth.

Instead, those predators

room free,

groom the public,

feel them up,

bed them foul -

pure truth and justice

losing their virtuous freshness.

Yah, pretty messy and miserable.

In this mad, mad world

it's "alternate facts" on steroids.

Truth is twisted hideous,

justice jettisoned out of play.

Violence from the mouth

and in the streets.

Deliberate

lying,

fabrication,

misinformation,

manipulation

are the coins of this

Realm Unreal.

Yet we

Don't Give Up

Truth and its twin justice will win.

It may mean a lot of time and misery,

but they always do.

Reference Hitler and the Third Reich.

Truth is our substratum - solid.

Truth is reality.

Truth triumphs.

Truth is what is as is.

Example:

I'm eighty-three and old.

(happily).

If someone twists that to insist

I am twenty-three and spry

(Spare me, O Lord)

or that I am ninety-three

and nearly comatose

(Spare me, O Lord)

it just ain't so!

In all truth I am

eighty three and old

(Thank you, O Lord).

Truth is what is as is.

It is not malleable,

so, help us God!

Speaking of God, let's.

Better yet, let's hear

The Truth Teller

what's eventually

a go

and

what's eventually

a gonner.

"Here are six things God hates,

and one more that

he loathes with a passion:

eyes that are arrogant,

a tongue that lies,

hands that murder the innocent,

a heart that hatches evil plots,

feet that race down a wicked track,

a mouth that lies under oath,

a troublemaker in the family.

Proverbs 6:16-19

The Message

Now there's some

staunch, straight

Truth Telling

Quite applicable just now.

God's no pussycat.

God's straight and strong.

True on.

So, if it ain't good with God

it has a terminal future.

It won't make

the cut for eternity.

Today's political pit-bulls

don't know principle.

They and their fouling up

don't have a future.

We can.

Don't Give Up

What we do is face up to

the falseness and filth

corrupting the body politic,

and we do way more

than one better.

We live real in the midst of

the satanically unreal.

We live Jesus in community,

the togetherness that is

the Kingdom of God.

"Fear not little flock, for it is

your Father's good pleasure

to give you the kingdom."

Luke 12:32

"If you stick with this,

living out what I tell you,

you are my disciples for sure.

Then you will experience

for yourselves the truth,

and the truth will free you."

John 8: 31-32

The Message

Now there's a way to go,

a way to go good and true.

Stick with the game plan,

the companionship,

experience and teaching

of Jesus and the truth will free.

DON"T GIVE UP

As it turns out Jesus is

the embodiment,

the personalizing of truth:

"I am the way,

the truth and

the life."

John 14:6

No matter how

messy and miserable

prurient politics gets,

how horrible the abuse

of truth

and

The Common Good

The Body Politic,

in Jesus

we have a

WAY of LIFE and TRUTH

HIM

Shared as

KINGDOM PEOPLE

We Don't Give Up

******

A TRUTH STORY

It was pricey and

more than well worth it.

Just a dozen in the private,

Park Avenue studio kitchen of

Chef MaryAnne Loff.

Five days of excellence.

Instruction, demonstration,

hands on with the culinary arts.

Chef MaryAnne

of TV and cookbook fame,

personable and gracious,

offered a masterful class.

Each participant had

space and all they needed

right down to clipboard

complete with studio stationary.

Edith from Milwaukee

owned a cookware store.

Edith filched some of

Chef MaryAnne's stationary.

When home she scripted

an effusive recommendation

of herself and signed it

Chef MaryAnne Loff.

Edith then took it to be framed.

She couldn't wait to place it

prominent in her store.

Unknown to her

the framer spilled coffee

on the letter.

He sent it to Chef MaryAnne

explaining his plight and

asked if she would rewrite it

sending it back to him

with not a word to Edith.

Chef MaryAnne complied

with a twist.

She wrote a humorous, snarky,

less than stallar

recommendation of Edith.

Finally framed, Edith hurriedly hung

the letter in her store

assuming it was the original.

It was down and trashed

in less than a day.

A customer breaking into laughter

when reading the framed letter

was the tip off - off for sure!

One way or another

Truth Triumphs

******

A HEARTFELT WELCOME

ALL

Great that we get to gather

here at

frankly speaking

spirituality for the street

johnfrankshares.blogspot.com

a weekly

ONLINE POSTING

Each Wednesday

Before noon

East Coast USA time

Each Friday

Wednesday, August 9, 2023

DONT GIVE UP