Thanks RGT! (Happy New Year Thread)

[Arouet]

Hey Folks,

As the count is ticking down on this year I wanted to take a reflective moment and thank all you guys. I have posted a couple times that my wife has been suffering for the last 5 months from pregnancy complications involving intense pain and bed rest. There's still 6 or so weeks left. Needless to say, this has been a very stressful time in our lives and things have been difficult to say the least (haven't even played any poker - afraid of monkey tilt due to lack of focus!)

RGT has provided a welcome distraction, great debate and I've learned a lot. I appreciate you all, especially those I've butted heads with!

So thanks RGT, and Happy New Years to everyone! I look forward to more mind expanding discussion in 2010!

[JoeyDiamonds]

Sorry to hear about the wife.... hope all gets better soon.

Have a great 2010.

[BigErf]

Odds on Joey Diamonds puttin' down a case this New Years Eve?

[JoeyDiamonds]

Originally Posted by BigErf

Odds on Joey Diamonds puttin' down a case this New Years Eve?

Even....may drop though.

I wouldn't bet against me if I were you....just saying.

I just got invited to play in a charity tournament in mid January in Vegas so I need to get my drinking arm warmed up for 3 days of poker.

[BigErf]

Originally Posted by JoeyDiamonds

I wouldn't bet against me if I were you....just saying.

Oh you better believe that thought never crossed my mind

[JoeyDiamonds]

Originally Posted by BigErf

Oh you better believe that thought never crossed my mind

You are wise beyond your years, my brother.

[BigErf]

Originally Posted by Arouet

I have posted a couple times that my wife has been suffering for the last 5 months from pregnancy complications involving intense pain and bed rest. There's still 6 or so weeks left. Needless to say, this has been a very stressful time in our lives and things have been difficult to say the least

When I read this Arouet I thought about something that was in rdgertutt's thread. It's a little long but well worth the read:

But at times God has to use more severe means. Some months ago I turned on my car radio while enroute to a meeting on a Sunday morning and heard a preacher relate a most interesting and illustrative story. He said, "I remember a friend of mine that I was in school with. He was a pastor in the East Texas oil fields at the time of the explosion at the New London School. I shall never forget that night when word came in over the radio that that school had exploded and that over 300 boys and girls had been killed. I was speaking the next morning on the radio in Dallas, Texas. And that morning I directed everything I had to say to the parents and loved ones of those boys and girls. We had cards and letters from New England, from Cuba, from Mexico, from all over the country.

"But this pastor friend of mine told me this story. He said, In the parish in which I was the pastor, there lived a man that had become suddenly rich. He was a Texan who had become oil rich, even had put up a small refinery. And he had made already several millions of dollars. He had built a lovely home. He had a wife and two beautiful boys. And the wife and two boys were Christians, fellowshipping in our Church. And this pastor went on and said, This man was the worst blasphemer I had ever met in my life. I've never heard a man talk as that man would talk. He would blaspheme God, curse God. And his wife was so concerned about him and asked me to go see him. I went to see him, and I've never been treated like that in my life. He cursed me from the time I opened my mouth until I got out of earshot. He called me everything that was in the book and some things I didn't know were in the book. He was vile. His wife and one of his little boys took sick during the flu epidemic and both died at the same time. I went over that night to see them. I went in and there sat the father and the little boy that was alive. I went over and sat down beside them and began to talk, and he began to abuse me again. And curse - I've never heard anything like it! It was vile beyond description. He blasphemed God's name. There was nothing left for me to do but get up and walk out of there, which I did. I had the funeral. The man wouldn't even speak to me. And he became more vile after that. But all of the love that he'd had for his family, and that seemed to be the only thing about the man that was a redeeming feature, was now turned to this one little boy that was left.

"That little boy was in the New London School. This man, when he heard of the explosion, went out to that school and went through that rubble like a madman until he found the torn and twisted, broken body of that little boy. Then he took it in his arms and walked up and down that schoolyard like a madman until they actually took it away from him and carried it to the funeral home. You know, I felt it was my duty to go and talk with him. So that night I went over to that big home, and I went in and there was that little white casket and there he sat, the same place he'd sat before. I just steeled myself for the cursing that I was to get. I was afraid to say anything. I just sat down. Then that great big hulk of a fellow looked up and our eyes met. He hadn't cried before, but there were tears in his eyes. And instead of cursing me, he said to me, God has been after me all the time. He's tried to speak to me all my life, and I turned my back on Him. He took my wife and my other little boy, and I knew He was talking to me. But I was afraid of what men might say, those I worked with and was associated with. Oh, what a coward I've been. And now He's had to take this one! Well, he said, God can have me now. And that man got down on his knees beside that casket and took Christ as his Saviour. The last time I saw that pastor friend of mine he told me that that oil man was still serving God" -end quote.

That man did not respond to the POSITIVE witness of the Gospel of God's grace, so corrective measures were needed, and God stretched forth His hand and brought NEGATIVE forces into action, thereby getting his attention.

I don't know if this is your first child or not but you have a challenging road ahead; I know, I have a four year old of my own. Children are a blessing in disguise but you need to be "Spiritually" prepared more then anything. By "Spiritually" I mean attitude. You need to be strong in ways that you don't yet know (if this is your first). Maybe God is trying to get your attention, to say, "Hey Dad, it's time for you to grow." Just be open to the possibility - and if there's ever a time when you feel that a Higher Power would be of great assistance right about now, don't be afraid to try something new. You never know, it could be that missing peace.

[JoeyDiamonds]

You're a good man, BigErf.

[Eddi]

^^^^^ I hope I'm not misreading it, because all I see in that post (of BigErf) is pure f'cking evil

[JoeyDiamonds]

Originally Posted by Eddi

^^^^^ I hope I'm not misreading it, because all I see in that post (of BigErf) is pure f'cking evil

It really must suck to be you.

[Eddi]

Originally Posted by JoeyDiamonds

It really must suck to be you.

If you're a religious person, it would suck indeed. I view people, who think gods doing negative things (in particular killing) to get attention being a good thing or a good story to tell, as being pure evil.

[BigErf]

I trust Arouet will understand what is behind that post.

Eddi, if it were you and your family that was suffering, I would NEVER have left you that. Because your eyes can't see.

[Eddi]

Originally Posted by BigErf

I trust Arouet will understand what is behind that post.

Dear Arouet, once you see the bliss behind the sadistic attention whore of a God that BigErf apparently dreams to have the privilege of worshiping, let me know.

Eddi, if it were you and your family that was suffering, I would NEVER have left you that. Because your eyes can't see.

1. Thank gods.
2. So you think what you wrote was a positive thing and you promise to never offer me that positive thing. See my previous post I guess.

[ajmargarine]

Originally Posted by BigErf

That man did not respond to the POSITIVE witness of the Gospel of God's grace, so corrective measures were needed, and God stretched forth His hand and brought NEGATIVE forces into action, thereby getting his attention.

That's religion's god, erf. The manipulative puppetmaster "out there" somewhere, pulling strings. That's not the way it is, bro.

[Arouet]

Guys this really was to be a thread to let people say happy new year but it wouldn't be RGT if it didn't spawn into a good debate!

BigErf, I'm sorry if this disappoints you but I'm fully in Eddi's camp on this one. If I ever was convinced that there was a God and came to the conclusion that that God was putting my wife (and to a lesser extent me and our two kids) through this as some sort of wake up call, please know that I would join our rich oil man in the story above in cursing that God's name. That God might succeed in getting me to worship him through fear that he would do some other sort of horrible thing to those near and dear to me, but love him? not a chance. Respect him? Never. Curse him? to the end of my days. Even thinking about it in a hypothetical is getting my blood boiling.

If that is God, then God cannot lay claim to being remotely loving, let alone all-loving. That God is a sick twisted son of a bitch (which is hardly a surprise, given that that is very consistent with his image in the bible.)

Believe me that I am far more comforted by my belief that this is just some unfortunate bad luck rather than believe that it is the plan of some malevolent deity who wants to get my attention.

By the way, aside from her massive unrelenting pain, to date the doctors can find nothing particularly wrong with either her or the baby. So hopefully there's just something rubbing up against something else causing her pain. We have no evidence that there is anything else wrong.

I appreciate you trying BigErf to provide comfort, but if you take a step back and really look at that story you cited, I think you'll see it in a different light.

Happy New Year!