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Charlie Traffas
Charlie Traffas has been involved in marketing, media, publishing and insurance for more than 40 years. In addition to being a fully-licensed life, health, property and casualty agent, he is also President and Owner of Chart Marketing, Inc. (CMI). CMI operates and markets several different products and services that help B2B and B2C businesses throughout the country create customers...profitably. You may contact Charlie by phone at (316) 721-9200, by e-mail at ctraffas@chartmarketing.com, or you may visit at www.chartmarketing.com.
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2011-10-24 12:18:44
Our borrowed existence – last in series
A: Like I always say…I’m glad to be asked. For the past seven issues, I have presented my case of why the US Dollar (USD) is in more peril than ever in its history of losing its status as the world’s reserve currency, while using research from a wide variety of places. If you have read these, you know that I believe there are some very serious things that are happening in this country and in the world that are not being talked about by nearly enough people, with appropriate action being taken. I would have much preferred people with much more knowledge in these areas than myself to do so, but it wasn’t being done to the extent that it needed to be done. I am not an economist. I am not a politician. I do not have an agenda…other than using this column to inform as many people as I can of the things I see and have researched, in the hope that something can be done before it’s too late. Maybe it’s already too late. Last month, I presented three solutions with this request…whether you’re on the right, left or in the middle…if what I have presented makes sense…holler until you’re hoarse…BALANCED BUDGET AMENDMENT…PRIVATE OVERSIGHT…AND FAIRTAX. We could have these implemented in less than 90 days! Humbly, please allow me to say…throughout this series I have received more compliments and accolades from my presentation of these issues than anything I have ever written in my life. Thank you. However, in all fairness, that doesn’t encompass an awful lot. While it does include 22 years of publishing and being in the process of writing my third book, it’s not what I do what I do for a living. Of course I have also received the “We’ll get you rightie,” “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” and “Cancel my subscription” messages too. Throughout this series, I have chastised all who have contributed to our mess (myself included) about the same and tried to concentrate more on solving the problem with a plan instead of just ridicule and rhetoric. I have tried using the approach…enough is enough…let’s get these things fixed. I just want you to know before you read any more of this article, that I am the same guy writing it as the guy who wrote all of the others. If you have respected my insights, research, presentation and proposals in all that you’ve read thus far…please consider giving me some of the same respect for this last article…the one I have stated is guaranteed to work. I pretty well can assure you…I didn’t just all of the sudden turn into an idiot. My final solution…Solution #4 – Praying the Right Kind of Prayer. Yes, you read correctly…praying the right kind of prayer. Even at the risk of you dismissing all that I and others have brought to you on the USD losing its status as the world’s reserve currency…and all of the “heat” I will get from writing about this solution (which I will welcome), praying the right kind of prayer is our most powerful solution of all, and how I have chosen to end this series. It is guaranteed to work, and I will explain. You know how I have been saying in each article that I am not an economist or a politician? Well, I am also not a minister, priest or any other member of the clergy. I am however a realist, a bigger sinner than most, and a Christian. Of all the statements and opinions I have shared with you in this series…I will now make my boldest prediction. The amount of time we spend praying the right kind of prayer in this life…will serve as an eternal remorse for each of us in the next life. You may want to read this last statement again…or perhaps even a dozen times. Here is what I mean. If anyone who has ever died…could come back and give the rest of us who are still alive…one tip to help us more than anything else for the life that is to come…I believe it would be…one cannot spend enough time in this life…praying the right kind of prayer. Given the opportunity, those souls who have gained salvation, although completely happy and at peace, would suffer again all the pains of their life on earth to be able come back for only five minutes and spend them praying the right kind of prayer in order to earn a higher place in Heaven. Those souls in Hell, in an everlasting state of torment, would give everything and every pleasure they ever had in this life, an infinite number of times, to be able come back for five minutes and spend it asking for God’s forgiveness for all they had ever done against His will, and asking for His mercy…something they didn’t do before they died. Most people do not want to think about things like this. I would imagine this includes most of you. I am sure that once again…I am the “odd” one. I think about these things several times each day. But you know what? Neither of the above situations will ever happen. Why? Because there is no time in eternity. There is no time to do, undo or redo…anything. Ecclesiastes 11:3 says, “If the clouds are full, they pour out rain upon the earth; and whether a tree falls toward the south or toward the north, wherever the tree falls, there it lies.” Don’t quit reading yet. Please stay with me. Of course, this eternal remorse of not spending more time praying the right kind of prayer while in this life would be much more manageable for those souls who are in Heaven. Can you imagine being in Hell and having to bear this eternal remorse, along with the thought of how little was required to have gained salvation? Remorse in this life can be handled quite often with sincere apologies and resolutions of amendment that are kept. We have time to change things. Remorse…with no time to do, undo or redo anything…has to be a Hell in itself. This is why someday…whether in this life or the next…each of us will look back at how we spent our entire lives and realize…every moment we did not spend praying the right kind of prayer…was a moment wasted. Do you think, if these souls were given these five minutes, their prayers would be unusually focused? Bet everything you have on it. I doubt that any of their minds would be wandering. So if you buy into praying the right kind of prayer being the solution for the problems we have been discussing for the past several months (and any problem), and you intend to spend more of your time doing it, do so with all of the focus you can muster. If you are one who is still reading, and I do hope you are, you might be asking yourself, “How can he purport to know this stuff?” Let me give you two reasons. One, as I have gotten older and suffered and grieved through the most recent deaths of my mother and my father-in-law, my father, my grandparents, my son, many other members and extended members of my family, my friends and associates, and the illnesses of so many who are far and near and dear to me who are currently suffering…I realize more than ever…my faith is right on track. There has to be more to this life than feeding the insatiable appetite for money, power and sex; finding a more comfortable recliner; searching for a better tasting wine or a more juicy steak; witnessing an event; having a bigger home or a lakeside cottage…or both; driving a hotter car; shooting par; or some destination. I will be the first to admit, I have gone after most of these things as much or more than most, but if one will take time to think about it, if this is all there is to life…aren’t we all just serving our time until we die…trying to be as comfortable as we can? Isn’t this what animals do? There has to be more than this. I believe with all of my being that there is. By far, the biggest prize we will have ever sought in our lives, awaits each of us…but we have to gain it. It doesn’t just come to us. Praying the right kind of prayer is paramount in this endeavor. The second reason is that I am in the midst of writing a book on prayer, and through everything I have worked on and researched for these past many months in regards to this subject, I realize now more than ever…praying the right kind of prayer can do more for us for any type of problem…than any other solution…we will ever face in this life. Why? Because it is guaranteed to work (full explanation to come). So now, with the biggest problems we as a country, have faced in nearly a century, there can be nothing that would be more appropriate than praying the right kind of prayer. But before I get into this in more depth, were I to be you, I would want a basis from which to begin my consideration. Please allow me to provide you with this…using my own words. What I will present is based upon my faith and the Bible. You may differ with the points I make. I would only respectfully ask that when you do, ask yourself, “On what basis do I disagree?” “Is it based upon my own thoughts and feelings and/or those of others?” As I have stated, the basis I will use is my faith and the Bible. I don’t know about you, but with eternity at stake, I would not want to have to deal with the remorse of having myself or some other mortal or mortals telling me something that I followed, when I had been presented with substantially more credible information. But then, that’s just me. I will promise you…if you will stay with me until the end, you will get one of two things: Either you will get something you may have never heard and/or considered before that could change the rest of your life and your next life; or you will get just enough information to rule out anything I and others like me have to say on this subject from this point forward. I figure you will consider one of them a benefit…but you have to stay with me all the way until the end. Here is the basis from which I ask you to begin your consideration. See at what point you disagree. I try to imagine an all-powerful, almighty, all-knowing, all-loving, all-good, all-wise, all-just, all-merciful and all-forgiving Supreme Being, who never had a beginning and will never have an end. This Supreme Being is God. I know that with my human intellect and all my inadequacies, I am not able to fully understand this, but I do believe this is the way it is. For billions and billions of years, and an infinite number of times more than this, God existed. At some point, He created the angels. Angels are beings of a higher nature than man. God created them with a free will. All of the angels shared Heaven with God. At some point, He gave them a test that would determine their destiny. Lucifer, one of the highest-ranked and most intelligent angels, along with other angels chose by their free will to be prideful. They all failed the test by acting as if they were equal to God. They revolted against Him. For this, God created Hell and sentenced all of them to the worst torments possible in this dreadful place for all eternity. Time passed. I don’t know how long. At that time, God created everything we know in this world: the planets, the solar system, the oceans, the trees, the firmament…and all creatures great and small. He may have created all of these outright; or He may have created these and allowed them to evolve; or He may have done some of both. He created all of these over several days. We do not know the length of each day. Each day may have been hours… or millions of years. The days may have been different in length. We do not know. According to the Bible (which He gave us as His word, handed down through prophets, who were guided, enlightened and inspired by the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Holy Trinity), He created Adam and Eve and put them in the Garden of Paradise. He created them in His image and likeness. This doesn’t mean they looked like God, although they might have. It means that they (and us) have an immortal soul…which is of God…and from God. There was no want, no sickness and no death in the Garden of Paradise. Adam and Eve did not have to work, suffer or worry. This was truly Heaven on Earth. It might even have been Heaven. Like the angels, God created man with a free will. He gave Adam and Eve only one commandment. It was very simple: Do not eat the fruit of a certain tree. “But of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat. For in what day soever thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death. (Genesis 2:36) God allowed Lucifer, Satan, the Devil (or whatever other name he was known by) to tempt Eve to eat the fruit. She succumbed. She shared it with Adam. He succumbed. As punishment, God drove them from the Garden of Paradise. He then closed the gates of entry. From that point forward, because of this “original” sin, man would have to work by the sweat of his brow to survive: “In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread till thou return to the earth, out of which thou wast taken: for dust thou art, and into dust thou shalt return.” (Genesis 3:19) There would be famine, pain, sickness, pestilence and death for Adam, Eve and all of their offspring, and all of their offspring’s offspring. When someone in the Old Testament died, his or her soul went either to Hell (the place made for Lucifer and his followers), or to the place of the dead, a holding place for souls worthy of Paradise. They had to go there, because the gates of Heaven were closed by the sin of Adam and Eve. My faith says this holding place was called “hell,” too, but it was a different Hell from the eternal home of Satan. I believe it was called hell because it was a place where God was not. Later in history, God the Father, Who is in Heaven, through prophets in the Bible, foretold of a Savior who would come into this world, suffer and die for all of the sins of everyone who ever lived. The prophecies came true when Jesus Christ, the divine Son of God, the second Person of the Holy Trinity, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, and born of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Bethlehem approximately 2,000 years ago. While our Lord Jesus Christ was on this earth, He gave us everything we need to gain salvation. He showed us the greatness of God and the love God has for each of us. He began His Church. He instituted the Sacraments as a necessary aid to our salvation. He gave full authority to St. Peter, and his successor Popes, to govern His Church infallibly, in all matters of faith and morals. He gave St. Peter the keys to the kingdom of Heaven. “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19) Our Lord Jesus Christ said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father, but by me.” (John 14:6) He suffered and died on the cross at Calvary for all of the sins of man for all time. By doing this, He reopened the gates of Heaven that had been closed by the sin of Adam and Eve. As He was dying on the cross, He gave us His Blessed Mother to be our Mother. “When Jesus therefore had seen his mother and the disciple standing whom he loved, he saith to his mother: Woman, behold thy son. After that, he saith to the disciple: Behold thy mother.” (John 19:26-27) Following His death on the cross, our Lord descended into hell (the holding place) and released the departed souls who had died and were worthy of Paradise. On the third day, He arose again from the dead, ascended into Heaven, and He sits at the right hand of God the Father almighty. He will come again to judge the living and the dead. It has been nearly 2,000 years since Jesus Christ died on the cross for our salvation. How much longer will God allow this world to exist? Only He knows. Man’s existence is what we might think of as a “stripe” on the highway called the Existence of God. This highway never had a beginning, and will never have an end. Although each of us is but a speck on this stripe, each of us has been created by God in His image and likeness, with an immortal soul. This immortal soul is the closest thing to God we have in our being. Throughout our life…it yearns to be back with Him. This is why all of the things one acquires or experiences in this life (i.e. prestige, social ranking, money, power, sex, that comfortable recliner, better tasting wine, more juicy steak, an event, bigger home or lakeside cottage or both, hotter car, low golf round or some destination), will never fully satisfy us. The search for these things is called concupiscence…an inordinate desire for pleasure…something we all received from the original sin of Adam and Eve. Notice the phrasing...an inordinate desire for pleasure. The desire for pleasure is a good and holy thing. In fact, St. Augustine notes that there can be no good unless it is delighted in. But original sin has wrangled pleasure, turning it into an end in itself. Instead of serving the good of others, the yearning for pleasure often turns us in on ourselves. God made each of us so the only thing that truly satisfies us is when our soul is with God. In the next life, that will be when we are with Him. In this life, we will never come closer to God than when we are praying the right kind of prayer. In doing so, we honor, praise and glorify Him. Now this next statement may go down hard, but be assured, it too…is the way it is. For any of us to do anything but honor, praise and glorify such a supreme, all-powerful, almighty and infinite God… is an insult worthy of eternal damnation in the fires of Hell…the place He made for Lucifer and his followers. If God condemned Lucifer for his sin of pride…one of the highest-ranked, brightest and most intelligent angels…to an eternity of punishment in Hell….He will condemn us too if our soul is in the state of serious sin when we die. God loves each of us. He wants each of us to be with him forever in Heaven. He did not create any one of us to spend an eternity in Hell. The Way to Him is through His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. The way to Jesus is His mother, the Blessed Virgin Mary, His Church, the Sacraments, the Bible, and the Angels and Saints. These are part of the “keys to the kingdom of Heaven.” That’s it. This is my basis for your consideration of this most important solution of all…praying the right kind of prayer. Did you disagree with me along the way? At what point? On what basis did you disagree? What do I mean the right kind of prayer? I will consider the first three questions rhetorical, although I would welcome the opportunity to discuss any or all of them with you. Please let me answer the last question. Prayer can best be described as talking with God. God is everywhere. We can talk to Him whenever and wherever we wish. Isn’t it something that many of us spend much of our lives trying to “befriend the king,” (i.e. some important person, the boss, a sports’ or movie celebrity, a socialite, the head of an organization, etc.), and all we have done if we are successful is befriend another mortal like ourselves? All we have to do to befriend God is talk with Him. We are never closer to Him than when we pray the right kind of prayer. When I think of talking with God, I often think of the red light that is on top of the camera when I have done TV commercials and videos. Most anyone who has done this type of work knows you can do anything you want to do until you see the red light. When you see it, you want to be sure you are doing your best and are totally focused because everything is “live.” In order that I focus on what I am saying when I talk with God, I say to myself, “The light is on. You are now talking with God.” I try to remember this throughout the remainder of my prayers. “The light is on!” So how does one pray? The best authority on this subject is our Lord Jesus Christ. In Luke 11: 1-13 and Matthew 6: 5-14, one of his disciples said to him, “Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples,” He taught them the Our Father. While most of us have said this prayer hundreds of times, how long has it been since you’ve stopped and pondered what it really says? It begins with an expression of our acceptance that God is our Father; that He is holy; that His name is holy; that His will will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven; then our requests begin…that He gives us our daily bread (what we really need); that He forgives our offenses as we forgive others’ offenses against us; that He helps us in time of temptation; and that He delivers us from evil. I think He was trying to tell us something, don’t you? To have God hear our prayers and act upon them, they must be pleasing to Him. There is only one way that they will ever be pleasing to Him. That is, if we pray completely for the will of God to be done in all things. This is the right kind of prayer. You can be assured of this…there is no way to honor, praise and glorify God more than to pray for His will to be done in all things. Although we often think we do…not one of us know the will of God. Based upon all we know as mortals…we think that it would be a bad deal if the USD loses its status as the world’s reserve currency; or if the Chinese take over our country and our economy because of the huge amount of our debt that they hold; or if the United States is no longer the leader of the world; or if someone is or is not re-elected again; or if a loved one doesn’t recover from an illness; or if we fail in business or a personal endeavor of some kind; or if fire and brimstone rain down on Sodom and Gomorrah. With all of the human understanding given to us by God, we think we have a pretty good idea what will happen if these things happen or do not happen, but we do not know if any of these are what God wills. God wants us to ask Him for we want and what we think we want, but He wants us to ask that it be His will, that His will be done in regards to these petitions and intentions, that He makes us an instrument of His will, and that He gives us the grace to accept His will. Quite often the best way to describe the right way to do something is to describe the wrong way to do it. Have you ever found yourself praying any of these types of prayer? • Dictatorial prayer – it brings its desires to God and tries to get God to accept them. Its language is, “I want; I want.” Perhaps it is not so expressed, but that is the cry of the heart. It is not considering what God wants, it is thinking of self and self looms so large that God is left out of the question. • Grumbling prayer – this, that, or the other has not been going right. God is blamed for not answering prayer. Through the prayer there is an attitude of dissatisfaction. There is a frown in it. • Complaining prayer – it is a petulant recital of the faults of others. So many people are like children who run to their parents with complaints about their playmates. They whine, and sniff, and feel themselves very much aggrieved, and want to pour it all out into God’s ear. God wants us to put away childish things and approach Him like right-minded, sensible, intelligent, grown-up individuals. • Resentful prayer – this is the type of prayer that comes from a heart, which within, is saying, “I have prayed and Thou hast not answered. I have cried and Thou hast not helped.” It is not satisfied with the manner in which God answers, or with the time when He answers. It is a disgruntled prayer that is full of rebellion. • Doubting prayer – this is not the prayer that is merely uncertain of God’s will because it has not yet been learned, but the prayer that questions Him, that doubts His fidelity, or His willingness to hear and answer. It is the prayer that puts a question mark after His promises. It distrusts God. • Pompous prayer – such prayer is only a prayer of the lips and an insult to God. It is a hypocritical prayer, and no such prayer was ever answered, neither is there any expectation that it will be answered. Such a prayer is a “pompous form.” It has no more of real prayer substance than solid material in the inflated balloon. People ask for what they do not really desire, and for that which they do not expect to be granted. Some deliver prayers to an audience, with the audience, not God, in mind. • The hypocritical prayer – these prayers are prayed by people who seem to be very good and who have no idea of being hypocrites. One prays, “O Lord, save my neighbors,” yet makes no effort to do anything toward their salvation. He desires them to be saved; yet he goes on his way very complacently, having no compunction of conscience, because he does nothing to lead them to Christ. Another prays, “O Lord, save the heathen. O Lord, raise up missionaries to go,” but in his heart he says, “But don’t take John or Mary; leave my children with me. I have other plans for them. Send somebody else’s children as missionaries.” All these are examples of hypocritical prayers, and all such prayers are an affront to God.’ Leaving the negative, let us look at the positive side. Prayer…prayed in complete accordance to God’s will…first and always…is sincere prayer. There is nothing pharisaical or hypocritical about it. It is the yearning of the heart, which is moved by the right motives and animated with a deep sincerity. Every word is the honest sentiment of the heart. It is not mere lip service. It is not mere form. It is always characterized by humility, for humility is always a characteristic of godly sincerity. It is also the prayer of simplicity. Its language is not stilted or pompous, for there is little thought of effect. It is the simple cry of the child to its Father. The prayer that is prayed according to God’s will is always a submissive prayer. It does not press its own desires. The language of the heart is, “Thy will be done.” It does not argue with God. It does not choose the way He shall answer; in fact, it has no requirements for Him. It trusts in divine wisdom, counts God faithful, hopes all things and believes all things. It is the prayer of confidence, not the prayer of doubt. It believes God, and is ready to write, “This is true,” and sets its seal to all of God’s promises.” We come to the Father through Christ and it is through Christ that we gain our Salvation. It is Christ who throughout his ministry, continually stated most clearly that He came not to do His own will but the will of the One who sent Him, namely His heavenly Father. Even when He knew He was about to suffer the agony of the Crucifixion, He prayed not for His own will but the will of his Father. We must always live the example of the Savior in our own lives, beginning of course with how we pray. Regardless of what we seek, we must always pray for God’s will to be done, that He makes us an instrument of His will, and that He gives us the grace to accept His will. Remember earlier how I said, “I will promise you…if you can stay with me until the end, you will get one of two things: Either you will get something you may have never heard and/or considered before that could change the rest of your life and your next life; or you will get just enough information to rule out anything I and others like me have to say on this subject from this point forward. I figure you will consider one of them a benefit…but you have to stay with me all the way to get it.” Here it is, and it is one of the few things in life that cannot be refuted. God’s will…will be done…every time…in every situation. Book this, just as you would book the sun coming up in the east tomorrow morning…assuming God wills it. Although we can ask for anything (and God really wants us to do so), why would we, as His subjects, want to pray for anything else but His will to be done in all things, since it is going to be done anyway? It is a much more comfortable existence to do so and you are guaranteed to have your prayers answered. So, if you believe what I and others have presented in this series, that we have some serious issues facing us as a nation, in this last…most important solution of all…we need to pray that it be His will for a balanced budget amendment, private oversight and the FairTax; that our elected and appointed officials govern, execute, legislate and adjudicate in accordance with His will; that His will be done in all things…nothing more…nothing less…nothing else; that He makes us an instrument of His will; and that He gives us the grace to accept His will. Like I have stated for these past several months…this solution is guaranteed to work. While I titled this series, “Our borrowed existence,” which refers to the USD losing its status as the world’s reserve currency and what I and others think will happen if it loses that status, our real borrowed existence is our life on this earth. It and all that’s in it has been borrowed from God. He can take any or all of it back at any time of His choosing. Let us each be sure when He does, we have honored, praised, glorified, loved and served Him as He deserves; and prayed for His will to be done in all things. Everything will be okay if we do. Thank you for allowing me to present this entire series.
 
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