What is man that you are mindful of him?

                                                                                              Originally written February 2, 2008

Blue pinprick dots, black velvet night. Silence, majesty, enormity - insignificance, minuscule, tiny.
“When I consider Your heavens, the work of Your fingers, The moon and the stars, which You have ordained, What is man that You are mindful of him, And the son of man that You visit him?” Ps. 8:3, 4 NKJV What perfect context David could see. He knew that “The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork. Day unto day utters speech, and night unto night reveals knowledge. There is no speech nor language where their voice is not heard.” Ps. 19:1-3 NKJV Even in his day the skies were speaking - telling of God and of the work of His fingers and the state of His love. Just after the, “Let there be…lights in the firmament” there were.
Every time I look at the heavens at night I am thrilled by and filled with the awe of God.
And what does this have to do with conflict and peace? If I got it; if I saw who He really was; if I truly understood that the faint light from the pinpricks in the black night striking my retinas, having traveled trillions of miles through this vast, boundless and exotic universe filled with horse’s heads and cat’s eyes, were the work of His; if I could read The Artist’s ways in the speech His created works pour forth in volumes that would fill every library in an instant to overflowing; if I understood the deep love that comes to me across those many, many miles and comprehended who it is that is behind it; that He intends only good to me and not evil - I would cast my pride to the dust proclaiming “Holy, Holy, Holy - Lord God almighty…” and I would be at peace. I would never claim fame, but the glory would go to Him from my lips as it does from those in the heavens,

“You are worthy, O Lord,
To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And by Your will they exist and were created.” Rev. 4:11

I need to look at the heavens often - to remind myself of who I am - insignificant, pitiful, tiny, minute - and yet… and yet - What am I that He is mindful of me? Tears spring to my eyes - what is it in me that He sees of value? We…, the objects of His supreme desire. “…for he who touches you touches the apple of His eye” and He has “inscribed you on the palms of His hands” Zech. 2:8, Isa. 49:16.
I am at peace in a knowledge of His majesty and His love for me.

How I Discovered the Benefits of Micro-Fiber Cleaning Cloths and What They Can Do for You

My purpose for writing this article is to inform you of the great benefit of micro-fiber cloths and what they can do for you. I give you tips for their use and things to try them on. I'm simply sharing something that is a blessing to me.

How I discovered these little wonders
I never really thought of myself as a salesman until I was in college and had to make money some how. I saw a job posting to earn $14/hour and I was surprised and thought that was pretty good pay. I applied, went through the training and ended up selling Cutco -- excellent quality American made cutlery. Mostly knives, but they sell cookware now as well.

I was doing a Cutco demonstration one day for a lady and after which she showed me a micro-fiber cloth. She showed me how it could remove mascara from her cream colored carpet. At first I thought she was nuts, but the cloth removed all of it.  My wife was there and she was impressed, but I was thinking, "Who would pay fifteen bucks for a cloth?" My wife was hooked and joined the club to get these cloths. I went on my merry way and continued to sell Cutco.

The next demo I did was for another lady at a restaurant. After an hour and thirty minutes I sold one knife and made a commission of $10 (I was still cutting my teeth on these). At the end of my demo my wife, who was with me and had brought one of the micro-fiber clothes with her asked the lady who had just bought the knife if she had ever seen a micro-fiber cloth and their benefits. She proceeded to show her how the cloth removed Vaseline from a window by itself -- no water, Windex or anything else and left no residue. This got the attention of 2 other ladies, one of whom knew about micro-fiber and had paid five dollars more than my wife was selling them for hers. In less than 15 minutes my wife made close to forty dollars pure profit. Needless to say I was interested.

I've sold these cloths at several fairs and done well although it is hard work.  What I want to share though is really how these cloths work -- they are truly amazing.

Here are some of their uses:

• Firstly it is important to know that they are not all made equal. You can get some cheaper ones from discount stores and they are junk. It is true that you get what you pay for. So spend eight to fifteen dollars per cloth and you will be rewarded by how well they work. they last a long time so you won't be replacing them next month, it could be years.
• I have literally put permanent marker on my own carpet and removed it with the high quality cloths just with water. You need to rub pretty hard and the more porous the material the more water you'll need, but it works. (I wouldn't try this on clothes deliberately, but would use it if it happened by accident). If you want to test it try it on an existing stain or spot on your carpet and be prepared to rub it hard and well.
• They remove wax crayons from carpet, mirrors, linoleum, probably walls as well though I have not tried this.
• Grease or oil from mirrors, glass -- and you can do it wet or dry. Usually wet makes it easier, but it is not necessary and they leave no residue.
• Use them for the car, shower, kitchen, nursery, carpet stains. Use them to remove pasta sauce stains from clothes. Using them as soon as possible is best. I've done this several times and though it seemed the stain was still there, when my pants dried out there was no stain.
• Don't be afraid to use them for any cleaning job.
• Unfortunately they do not remove ball point pen from clothing -- they may help though.

Some tips

• Keep a small cloth or piece of cloth handy in your wallet, handbag or car and use it as needed.
• Use it only with water. Do not use a cleaning solvent with it.
• If it isn't working well it may need to be washed. Use any soap and just wash by hand or place it in the washer. For best results do not use bleach, fabric softener and try to keep it out of the dryer.
• They make great gifts for weddings, baby showers or any related party.

I hope you get to use this amazing product of technology if you haven't done so yet.

Tips to Teaching Student Pilots of Airplanes Recovery From Unusual Attitudes

As a flight instructor I recently gained some great tips on effectively teaching student pilots how to recover from an unusual attitude.

An unusual attitude can easily be created by a student or inexperienced pilot who for whatever reason is not paying attention to his instruments (often in poor visibility conditions) and gets into generally one of two positions. Either they inadvertently enter a climb that will eventually lead to a stall or spin, OR they enter a dive that will eventually cause them and their airplane to be used as earth moving equipment. We know it to
be a bad idea to try to move mountains or earth with airplanes.

Recently I was flying with my chief flight instructor as he was conducting an Instrument Proficiency Check
(IPC) for me. Any instrument rated pilot who does not fly at least 6 instrument approaches under simulated or actual instrument conditions in a 6 month period has to undergo one of these checks with a flight instructor who is current, in order to gain their currency back.

During part of the check it was necessary for me to do some partial panel work in which my chief covered some of the instruments to see if I was still able to fly an approach this way as well as recover from a couple unusual attitudes he placed me in. This is an expected part of this flight check.

When my chief did this he told me to use only the airspeed indicator (ASI) and the turn coordinator for the unusual attitude recovery. I had never been taught it this way. I always had the attitude indicator and the heading indicator to look at as well. Mistakenly until then I had thought that it was the vertical speed indicator (VSI) I was to look at in order to see when we were level again. If you do this you will quickly be a smoking hole in the  ground as the VSI lags reality by 7 or 8 seconds. I learned from my chief that it was the ASI I was to look at.

So when you first teach unusual attitude recovery  to your new private pilot students allow them to keep the hood (a view limiting device to simulate them being in actual instrument conditions) off while at the same time you demonstrate how they are to recover from this. They will see how, as the airspeed reverses either direction, i.e. goes from decreasing to increasing or vice-versa, that at that very moment the aircraft is level with the horizon.

Using the turn coordinator they can see if the wings are level or in a bank. It follows then that if the ASI shows the speed to be increasing, power should be reduce and if it is decreasing the yoke should be pushed forward and the power increased.

Once a student has seen this a few times to convince them of the validity of the ASI as telling them the aircraft is level they can do the recovery while under the hood using only this and the turn coordinator for the initial recovery.

I have seen this help students easily master this exercise.

What Will Running Your Life at Full Power Mean for You?

For those pilots among us this would be a frightening reality. This is what's happening. You're down to the last 1,000 feet of runway, still haven't touched the wheels of the aircraft on the ground but still want to - there are just a couple problems: Number one you still have too much airspeed to actually land the airplane without it wanting to keep flying and two, you have some big trees right in front of you at the end of the runway.

I awoke this morning with this dream in my head. It was very clear - I was standing with a friend who owned the airport and the aircraft involved, but someone else was flying it. He was practicing take offs and landings and had just flown by trying to get the plane down. He was going too fast and still wanted to land, but was quickly running out of runway and there were those unforgiving trees straight ahead. I was thinking to myself - full power - you need to go full power or we will be picking up pieces of airplane and maybe body parts too! He added some power, but not full power and managed to fly through the branches, miraculously missing the trees altogether - ssshhhew! It was quiet some time later that he added full power.

Now I'm no interpreter of dreams, but it seemed to grow on me more and more this morning that there is a message of truth in it.

For some time I have been wanting to write my flight instructors exams (in fact I've had the course for almost 2 years before I started it) to get ready for the flying part of the instructors rating and have not been at "full power." I've been distracted by multitudes of anything. A saying you know well says something similar to this: If your crash is desired - don't add full power, but if you want to fly - full power is absolutely necessary.

Crashing into trees is a conflict none of us in our right minds would choose, but what are the trees in our lives? I have crashed into them at numerous times - relationship mishaps, poor financial decisions, poor planning, unfaithfulness in all of the above and especially poor time management (more about faithfulness in the future).                                              

I want to be at full power in the correct portions of my life's flight and at the correct power setting at all other times. The wise book of Proverbs says, "Getting wisdom is the wisest thing you can do! And whatever else you do, develop good judgment."

It's time to run at Full Power - for me that means faithfulness in everything - how I handle relationships, the way I use my time, finances, talents and more. What does it mean for you?

The Enigma of Life

To say the least I'm perplexed -- not with living, but with life -- mystified that there can be such seeming opposites of joy and sadness, love and hate, worth and loss, gratitude and scorn, passion and apathy. I can be transported to the highest heights in a choral arrangement of Christmas Carols by Kings College; while at the same time experiencing the deepest sadness my optimistic heart can bear. We can look upon the splendor of a dawn; beauty of a flower; the marvel of a baby; loveliness of a woman and pay tribute to their Creator or exploit them.

I am enamored with songs of angels, awestruck with rifle recoil in the mountains, moved by the power of a low passing fighter jet -- all sounds that thrill me to the core. Yet devastated at the sound of a friend in tears at a distance -- whom I cannot hold; wondering at life lost hearing pistol shots in the city; crushed by the screams of a mother -- her son dying of shrapnel wounds; revolted by the monsters ghastly grunts of triumph at the fear of a victim. Part of the Enigma of life is this: sounds that thrill -- sounds that chill.

I am awed at the passion with which a man loves a woman even when acted in the movies, and -- as the wise man said -- one of the things that were too wonderful for him, "the way of a man with a virgin."

I am devastated at the way in which the poor, the outcast on the streets are treated; emphasized by Phil Collins, "Another day in Paradise" & Declan Galbraith's "Tell Me Why."

And yet, and yet -- I can rocket to the highest heights of heavenly bliss which I can reach, and in the next instant plummet to the deepest depths of anger or despair.

The only reason I can move so rapidly through these feelings -- the Creator fashioned me with them in the first place. No, they are not bad, not always deceitful, not wicked things I should shun, but I must grow up in them, must mature in my emotions if I am to mature in my spirituality.

What is it about us that crafts us so fickle? What within this beating chest can cause me to love so passionately or retain bitterness to such deep degree? To me -- this is the Enigma of life.

Perhaps seeking the meaning of life is where road and reality meet. I will find what I'm looking for.

Consider this...

Have you ever wondered how to be free from anger, worry, distress, guilt?
I just found an incredible tool to deal with these things and it is so simple I would never have thought.
It's called responsibility. Not like, "I'm responsible so I go to work" - although there is truth and value to that.
This is how I describe it, no one can make me mad, glad, excited, angry - I choose those responses. They come from the meaning I place on the experiences I go through.
Taking responsibility for me and my feelings is a precursor to being well and NOT  taking responsibility for myself is a precursor to - check this out - mental illness. You can ask Dr. E. James Wilder about that if you wish. He's a neuro-scientist. Wish I had learned or really got this a long time ago - would have made a lot of life more bearable. But as long as there is life there is time to learn.

I've been wanting to write articles and finally i can do this thanks to this site. I hope they are of use to you. Read more and come back often. See you soon.