Goals – The Latent Man

Urgency in the sound &Power in the Silence

“Nothing strengthens authority so much as silence.”
― Leonardo da Vinci

We wait for the loudest sound before we act. Not much will clear a ball field or a swimming pool quicker than a roll of thunder or a crack of lightning. We all see it coming. The wind picks up, and the gray, angry clouds roll in, but we still sit there, watching the sky, commenting on whether we should pack up or wait it out, and finally we run for cover as the clouds spark.

There is a seeming power in sound. The throaty roll of an engine coming to life or the roar of the crowd as the cheering intensifies. We are drawn to believe that what is loudest holds the greatest power — that volume commands influence. And though there is truth in the thunder, not all strength needs to shout. Sometimes, power moves in silence, and influence flows in barely audible whispers

After the earthquake, there was a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a still, small voice. – 1 Kings 19:12

The most powerful forces in nature occur in the vastness of the universe. Exploding stars, massive black holes, and Gamma bursts produce unimaginable forces in absolute silence.

I think we have fallen for the folly that to be successful, you have to have a platform that makes noise. You have the bang your drum and stand before an audience of thousands to have an impact. Those ways can be good, and they have their place, but we must not forget about Betelgeuse.

Betelgeuse is a red super-giant star in the constellation of Orion, and when Betelgeuse goes supernova, it is said it will shine in our night sky brighter than the moon for several months. Everyone on Earth will look up and take notice, and will be impacted by the beauty or just be in awe of the powerful mute death of a star.

A silent hug, or a whisper of encouragement in a friends ear can feel like a supernova inside someone who is hurting. A hand on a shoulder or your best friend showing up in an ER waiting room, without saying a word, can feel indescribable.

For the ones who are hurting, God may have you where your voice is not heard, or you feel like you aren’t seen. You may believe you aren’t impacting much of anything and in those times discouragement can creep in, grip you, and tell you, you are worthless.

Take that time to listen, to look. God maybe moving in silence. Take this blog for instance, it hasn’t blown up with hundreds of followers in over the couple of years I have been posting. When I started, I imagined I’d be answering emails and messages from readers and it would take up so much of my time and I would be connecting with people from all over the world but In fact, I can admit, it only has a handful of people who even know it exists. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t carry weight or have any impact at all. Maybe God didn’t mean this platform for the world, maybe he meant it for me. There are days when I’m discouraged, and I look back and I read one of my posts, and my very own words cheer me up and give me insight. They are old thoughts in a new season, and like the immense events of the heavens, these words on the screen don’t make a sound.

If you must shout, then shout resoundingly with purpose. But if the moment allows, move with quiet intent—
For silence can strike as powerfully as sound. If you have ever witnessed heat lightning then you know the silent flashes that can wink across a summer sky. Does the lightning lose strength for not roaring like the thunder?

In your experience does the squeaky wheel get the grease or is there something to be said for for quiet authority?

Keep developing yourself and to my future self who is reading this, don’t give up, you are loved.

I thought about sharing, the sound of silence, by Simon and Garfunkel (the remake by Disturbed is amazing in my opinion but I thought this fit better, so enjoy some classic Depeche Mode.

Peace and…

My five-year-old daughter loves to sing. In a single car ride, she will serenade you with her renditions of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star”, “Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer”, and a finale of “I Love Rock n’ Roll”.

I usually enjoy the entire car seat concert but my love for my daughter’s singing prows isn’t shared by her brother. While she is belting out partially correct lyrics, my son is pleading for her to stop while he holds his hands over his ears next to her in the back seat. His pleading usually ends with him yelling, “I just want peace!”

Working as a peace officer I’ve answered numerous calls where people want me to give them what my title suggests, peace. from the neighbor’s kids with the loud go-cart or from the landscaping crew doing the lawn next door. I even had someone call 911 because a helicopter flying over was making too much noise.

As I began to think through all these incidents and back to my son’s pleading in the car, I began to realize that our cries for peace are masking what we really want, control.

My son doesn’t like what my daughter is singing not because it interrupts his peace, but because it’s not his music and it’s not him singing it. As soon as I put a song on that he likes he will begin to sing along just as loud as my daughter and when she tries to join in, he will shush her. He never wanted peace, he wanted control.

Dictionary.com’s definition of peace is to end hostilities and abstain from further fighting or antagonism. I think we are looking for more than that. Yes, it feels good to not fight but you can have tension and uneasiness and not be openly engaged in an argument or fight.

In the Bible, the word peace is mentioned a total of 328 times. What’s interesting is the word peace in the Old Testament is the Hebrew word, Shalom. While the word peace in the New Testament is the Greek word, eiréné (i-ray’-nay) Shalom means completeness, soundness, and welfare. Eiréné means one, peace, quietness, and rest.

Compare our word for peace today against the biblical definition of peace and you can see a vast difference. It’s not just the absence of conflict but it’s a complete state of being made whole. If your world were to crumble around you, control and worldly peace would fail you. But true peace isn’t only attainable it’s promised to us by God.

“I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” -John 16:33

And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. -Philippians 4:7

You will keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast because he trusts you. -Isaiah 26:3

God holds this perfect peace in such high regard He is called the God of Peace ( 1 Thessalonians 5:23) and the Prince of Peace is one of many titles given to Christ in Isaiah 9:6 before his birth.

Next time you yell, “I just want some peace and quiet!”, know you are just wanting to regain control. No one can give you the peace described in the Bible aside from God and once you have it, it is amazing. As a deputy sheriff, a husband, and a father I have been in some crazy and bizarre circumstances and while others are losing their minds, I’ve found myself calm and focused. It doesn’t mean you are immune from stress or the weight of things won’t get to you. Trust me, stress and turmoil feel like they live rent-free in my life sometimes. Daily I have to turn to one or more of the verses above while massaging my temples and closing my eyes to make it through the first part of my day, and I don’t drink coffee, so prayer is appreciated. But what having that inner peace means is you’ll be able to cope better than let’s say Kramer from “Seinfeld” who repeats the mantra, “Serenity now.” when things go wrong. By the end of that particular episode, Kramer loses it as he just bottled up the anger until he eventually blew up. It wasn’t true serenity or peace.

I’ve typed it before, life isn’t easy and sometimes it downright sucks but I want you to know, that even if quiet never comes you can at least have a peace that surpasses all understanding.

I said I’d have a project update coming soon but I don’t. My woodworking tools have sat quietly in the garage while I recover from surgery. So for now I will focus more on writing and will have more to share on that front soon. I hope you all are well and you continue to develop yourself.

Shalom Shalom (Perfect Peace) my friends.

Cardboard Wings

I’ve always loved to write. I just never thought I was any good at it. When my middle school English teacher gave a creative writing assignment my first and only question was, “Does it have to be real?” When the answer was, “No.” I took creative licensing to a whole new level.

Back then I was into war stories. In fact, I still am. I’d take nearly any subject matter and find a way to add gunplay. I’d rummage through my imagination’s armory for laser guns, bows, and arrows, or automatic rifles to arm my characters. After enduring a few of my combat-laden stories, I had a feeling my English teacher was trying to find subject matters I couldn’t turn into combat. Challenge accepted. “I want you to write about a family vacation.” I’d raise my hand and with a sigh of regret the teacher would simply answer, “No, it does not have to be true.” and my unbridled mind launched.

I never figured out why she just didn’t make us write non-fiction. Maybe because she never really wanted to know what some of these kids actually did when not in school. She was a mandated reporter after all.

That was in the early 90s. Can you imagine if my war stories made it across my teacher’s desk today? I’m sure parent-teacher conferences concerning the state of my mental health and safety would be scheduled. All I wanted to do then, is the same thing I want to do now, share the mental movie that played in my head. I wanted to make others as excited about what I was imagining as I was. But back then I grew up in the shadow of my older brother’s talent. He was a few years older and in the English and literature AP classes preparing for college, whereas you guessed it, he majored in English. He kept journals and blogged, wrote thought-provoking essays on culture, and even wrote poetry. How was I going to outshine that and did I even really want to?

My writing recessed as I left high school, even while receiving compliments from peers and teachers alike. I shirked them all as empty platitudes. I Looked for other avenues of interest, for something that was truly mine.

By the end of high school, my boyhood dream of flying A10 Warthogs for the Air Force crashed and burned with an on-set of migraine headaches. So, it was off to college where I earned a degree in Criminal Justice and my creative writing went into a coma

It wasn’t till after college that I decided to put my very expensive piece of paper to work and entered the police force where my creative writing came back to me in an unexpected way. Incident reports and accident reports are the bane of most officers, but it made me write again, and write I did. Armed robberies, murders, assaults, car accidents, and the myriad of other calls you wouldn’t even believe all had to be documented. I learned attention to detail and my typing skills improved. I then realized I had access to an endless well of content to draw from. The craziness that happened in my town every day kept feeding me ideas. The creative writing that had gone to sleep began to twitch.

After the death of my brother, creative writing came to life. Maybe it was my way of mourning his loss, or I realized I didn’t have to be as good or better than him. I just had to be me. Ideas and plots and characters began to jumble and bounce around inside my skull. I’d sit in church parking lots to finish up my daily reports and then allow all the creative ideas to flow. I had no idea about drafting and editing and beta readers and all. I was writing and It felt good.
It’s been several years since then. Add a wife, two children, some animals, and promotions at work and well, something had to be put on the back burner. I’m still married so you can probably figure out what was sacrificed.
Eight years and I haven’t finished the first draft. I have put the pen down and picked it up so many times I can’t count. The number of revisions and changes that have happened are plentiful. Quasi superhero storylines have morphed into high-tech thrillers. Even a wild west story has recently begun to take shape and I don’t know if people even read those anymore. Through all this, though I have learned and applied techniques I wasn’t aware of and learned my own personal style of writing. My ultimate goal is to hold a published copy of one of my stories. It will be a journey and I am inviting you along for the ride.

We all have talents we don’t realize. Maybe we were told we weren’t good enough or it was a waste of time. Someone dumped water on your cardboard wings and now you can’t even get off the ground. If it’s something you are passionate about and God has given you a gift for, develop it. It’s the underlying message of this blog, the core theme that you will find; take what is hidden and develop it into something of value. Whether that is a skill, a hobby, or you as a person. We all have value. Value to those around us, value to ourselves as individuals, and definite value to God.

Do you have any hidden dreams or goals, or ones that aren’t hidden but you are struggling to obtain? Have you finally reached a goal? What did you do to reach it?