GUTS

Grit Plus Peace

/ Leland Olson Hoel / 4 Comments

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Grit

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Grit or Grace

Grit is good, grit is great, most of the time! Everyday we seem to need more grit to carry on in this world. It would be very hard to survive, just exist without a lot of grit or determination and drive. There is a term for this grit in the country of Finland they call it sisu.  Sisu is not momentary courage, but the ability to sustain that courage. It is a word that cannot be fully translated.

There is something else that we need more than grit and it is free, it might possibly be the most important thing we can have. It is peace, we need peace, an inner peace that has much more power than all the grit we can conjure up. There is only one place to find that true peace and that is God’s peace that surpasses all understanding, it has so much power, the human mind cannot comprehend the power of God’s peace.

In Philippians 4:7 we have a wonderful promise: “The peace of God, which passes all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.” It is important to note the context of this promise, because that’s where we find the condition: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God” (verse 6). God’s peace is promised to guard those who pray—with thanksgiving—about everything. This peace will transcend our ability to understand.

God’s peace is a personal bond between “Him” and each individual who follows him, when people  have his peace they truly understand it, although they cannot explain it. It is there to carry them, each and every day through all the trials and tribulations of this world.

Many people continually pray for peace, peace between peoples and nations to stop all the killing. That peace will never happen according to God’s word which says there will always be wars and rumors of wars.”Matthew 4:6-10 New King James Version (NKJV)”
And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

Human nature does not change, man cannot get along with man, they let their differences, in some cases large differences over freedom and individual rights control their actions. Many would never live with peace, treating their fellow man equally. Their only hope is in finding  God’s life changing peace.

People in the Old Apostolic Lutheran Church greet each other with, “God’s peace!” There could not be a better greeting than, “God’s peace”! if you have it, you know you want to share it and tell the world about it and hope they can have that same feeling of inner peace. If you have God’s peace in the church building and take it with you when you leave, people all week long, all year long, all life-long will be able to witness God’s peace through your daily actions and how you live your life and treat your neighbor. That is the true gauge of what God’s peace can do.

Our individual grit drives us forward, as we seek peace and Grace. When somebody asks, “How are you?” I hope you can say, “BLESSED.”

https:wordpress.com///lghoelson.

 

 

Avid Determination

/ Leland Olson Hoel / 2 Comments

avid

Avid

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Avid Determination
I have to believe I was born a tinker, in a way, this is been a blessing. For some reason, I quit High School my junior year and went into the U.S. Air Force.This was not a very wise move at the time, I was not thinking about furthering my education at that young age. I did finish High School in the Air Force attending night classes and also taking some extra classes in electronics and math through MIT. That was in the year 1959. I said I was blessed to be a tinker because my life has really been that of an avid do-it-yourselfer. My life has been avidly repairing or rebuilding anything and everything. An avid Jack of all trades, master of many, different things throughout my life. My wife spent over 40 years volunteering my services to anyone and everyone if something needed fixing, or was not working correctly.

I also have to believe avid is a way of life, a philosophy, strive to do everything which determination, with an aim at completion and success. That is why I want to share with you the following information about AVID. It helps people complete their education, to fulfill their lives, with meaning and purpose. Education becomes more important each day. It requires work, grit, and determination. “AVID is not just another program…at its heart, AVID is a philosophy”
“AVID is not just another program…at its heart, AVID is a philosophy Hold students accountable to the highest standards, provide academic and social support,
and they will rise to the challenge.”

“AVID, , is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to closing the achievement gap by preparing all students for college and other posts Advancement Via Individual Determinationecondary opportunities. Established more than 35 years ago with one teacher in one classroom, AVID today impacts nearly 1.5 million students in 46 states and 16 other countries/territories. View our AVID Snapshot.”
avid

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Totally Tenacious

/ Leland Olson Hoel / 5 Comments

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Tenacious

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Totally Tenacious

An example of tenacious is a person who lives for another twenty years with a terminal disease.

I do not have a terminal disease but I did suffer a severe spinal cord injury 52 years ago. You might say I am a tenacious person because I have refused to give up or to follow all the rules in the book about living with severe spinal cord damage.

The doctors recommended I not lifting anything over 20 pounds yet I took a job unloading freight cars two years after my injury. Being hungry is a great work incentive. I took a day labor job where they find you work and keep a sizeable portion of your pay. I did manage to stay alive this way because I had money for food. That might be considered more staunch than tenacious.

I did many different jobs that required lifting but finally went to work driving truck. I drove every type of truck, gravel truck, propane gas, tanker truck, refrigerated trucks hauling meat from the Midwest to Arizona and California. That job also required much heavy lifting along with traveling many rough roads, sitting on seats that were poor quality in many trucks.

Neurology doctors look at my MRI’s and wonder how I can still walk. My spinal column and cord have been inflicted with just about every type of problem that can affect the spine. At the present time, the inside of my spinal cord is completely hollowed out from the tailbone to the base of the brain. That has destroyed many nerves controlling different parts of the body. I can still walk and make the most of each new day, I guess that makes me tenacious, persistent or determined.

I do believe being a truly tenacious person is all mental. You can ask the body to do just about anything and it will comply with your mental commands. The body is capable of doing them, it is all connected to the right frame of mind to start with. If you are determined and unwavering, doggedly work for your goals, you can reach just about anything you decide on. You must first will yourself do it, or it will never happen.

https://lghoelson.wordpress.com/

Sisu

/ Leland Olson Hoel / 1 Comment

sisu

Sisu

I have a blog site that I call My Mixed Blog. I have written several stories there about a spinal cord injury that I received in 1964. My lower spinal column was fractured and dislocated along with some spinal cord injury. I am now 76 years old, that injury happened when I was 24. I have lived all these years with the usual debilitating problems from the original injury. Plus I have developed syringomyelia and spinal stenosis over that same period of time. I’ve had two different drain shunts put into my spinal cord to drain out excess pressure and fluid, also vertabrate, disc surgery in my neck and treatment for spinal stenosis.

For most of these years I have lived with a repeated, almost daily, unanswered question. How have I survived this long? My answer has always been, through prayer and some very timely intervention with great neurology and orthopedic surgeons and some ‘LUCK’. In 1985 the neurology Dr. I was visiting had no idea why I was becoming paralyzed on my left side. A student Dr. that just happened to be sitting in with him that day, had just studied about a spinal cord condition known as syringomyelia, she told the doctor about it, he’d never heard of it. A week later a shunt was being placed into my spinal cord to drain out excess fluid and pressure.

It is only recently that I’ve come to realize my survival is no doubt connected to my Finnish Heritage. To a powerful, simple, little word called sisu. I believe that Finnish people are truly blessed, to be born with sisu, no doubt other nationalities are also born with sisu. The Finnish people retain the ability to understand the meaning and the workings, of and the power of sisu. I believe each individual has control over how he uses that power in his daily life. One can reach into the soul, down deep, to use that extra strength at the proper time.

I have enclosed a definition of the word Sisu at the bottom of this post, it comes as part of a quote from the Finnlandia University in Hancock, Michigan.

“Our Finnish Heritage”
“A new land, a new start”

“That’s how our Finnish founders felt about relocating to a new country. This same pioneering spirit is still alive today as new lives are forged at Finlandia University.”

Sisu

“To the Finnish people, sisu has a mystical, almost magical meaning. Sisu is a unique Finnish concept. It is a Finnish term that can be roughly translated into English as strength of will, determination, perseverance, and acting rationally in the face of adversity.

Sisu is not momentary courage, but the ability to sustain that courage. It is a word that cannot be fully translated. It defines the Finnish people and their character. It stands for the philosophy that what must be done will be done, regardless of cost.

Sisu is an inherent characteristic of the Finnish people. You might call it backbone, spunk, stamina, guts, or drive and perseverance. It is a measure of integrity that surpasses the hardship and sees through to the end.”

http://www.finlandia.edu/about/our-finnish-heritage/

Dancing On The Edge

/ Leland Olson Hoel / 6 Comments

airshow.jpg

DAILY PROMPT

Edge

DAILY PROMPT

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Living on the edge requires a special person. Someone who loves that rush of adrenaline that comes from flirting with fear or dancing around on the edge of danger. Aircraft pilots who perform in air shows have that heart, own those genes, a group of people who love to see and feel, exactly what living right on the edge is all about.

They are within seconds of totally destroying themselves and the airplanes they’re flying in, one small error in split-second timing is all that it would take to send them crashing to the ground in assorted balls of flames. There are very few things in this world that can compare to that type of a rush. Astronauts blasting off might be a close comparison.

They pull several G’s of negative energy, you feel your body being pressed against the pilot’s seat and your suit, as the G-forces try to crush your body. Then in another split-second, you are pulling positive G’s. You are traveling toward the Earth at the speed of sound, a few milliseconds later going straight up toward the sky and the other universes. You can continue flying to a higher altitude until your jet engines flame out. Then you can flip over and make a nose dive back toward the earth hoping that you can restart those engines on the way back down. You continue to dance on the edge until those engines start and you pull out of that dive, to keep from crashing into the ground at supersonic speed.

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