The Journey of bottled Waters - Memorial -Sports Finals - Moving on

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It's interesting the things we hold on to. The video or audio tape/file that plays over and over in our minds. Things that do us absolutely no good.

Dr. Phil always asserted that there is a pay off for all behavior. Well, there are a whole bunch of self inflicting / masochistic type folks in our midst day in and day out.

It really is our nature. No wonder there are so many life coaches these days, who as far as I'm concerned sound like fortune cookies, spewing profound little wisdoms we've all heard before. Putting a complicated spin on them that makes them appear to be so full of wisdom we should wonder what we would do with out the coach.

About as fascinating as "The Real Housewives of New Jersey." (rolls his eyes).

But to the point of blogging today, Ive been dealing with some issues that I woke up this morning and decided I didn't want to carry them into the 2nd half century of my life. So it was time to exorcise some familiar demons.

It's amazing how one simple little demon, can be like a pebble in your shoe that makes your journey down right uncomfortable. And sure enough, if YOU found this to be the case, you too would stop and take action to alleviate the problem. But along the way, you'd probably kinda shake your foot and hope the rock would pop out and at times, it would seem as if it indeed had left. But it would show up again and once again, interested in continuing your journey you'd maybe use a slightly more invasive procedure and maybe lift your foot, and slide your finger along the rim of the back of your shoe and continue on without missing a step.

But again, the pebble would become the nuisance that it is and if left unattended forever, would more damage than the time to make the intervention would interrupt your precious journey. As though we determine how long and how far the journey is. Even with free will, I believe there is something larger than us, ordering our steps for the good of more than we can even conceive.
So, I watched the French Open, Men's Tennis Final. I didn't know it was on today, but was happy it was. I needed a distraction from what I knew was looming. And you're going to have to read this whole thing to get to the end to find out! :o) It will be worth it!

Roger Federer won the Tennis tournament and it was historic. For one, he matched Pete Sampras' major tournament wins with 14 and he completed the career grand slam, finally winning the French Open for the first time in his career. Played on sand, his least favorite surface and having to face Rafael Nadal in the finals normally (not this year) it was good to see the emotion that Roger authentically exhibited. well deserved, I remember when he beat Pete Sampras at the US Open many moons ago. roger cried then too. Victory is sweet!

So, without the entertainment and not wanting to start in on completing the floor in the Sponge Bob room, I went to the closet and took out the two albums that everyone else has had the opportunity to have as a keepsake but passed on down the line. I've had them for at least 4 years and not a soul has shown any interest in them. It was time for them to burn!

They contained all the accomplishments of the wife beating alcoholic dad I grew up with. Certificates of law enforcement schools and academies. News paper articles, golf photos, a few family photos, basement drinking parties, and memorial crap to what I consider to have been an ass that messed up more than he ever helped.

Burning was too quick and easy, so I sat down with the shredder in front of me and page by page, I watched the tributes to and memorials of probably the single worst thing in my life, get eaten alive.

Some of it I laughed at ironically, all of it with sadness for the façade that it represented. Some of the golf stuff was a bit difficult to part with. I considered keeping one item in particular, a photo of Robert Trent Jones, probably the greatest amateur golfer ever, Jack Nicklaus' dad and the one the one that sired me, at the Augusta National course that hosts the annual major Masters Golf Tournament.

Another, of him with Tom Weiskopf, on the 18th green at the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio during the Memorial tournament. I remember the photo and time very well. I caddied tat day. It's a very hilly course that wore me out, carrying a bag that was bigger than I was. But on that 18th hole, as you approached the 18th green and saw the huge gallery behind, you started to feel new found energy and picked up the pace to make a sprint up that final hill and drop that bag on the back fringe, so as to tend to your player's needs.

Another photo of "dad the golfer" is in my book. So some of it will remain forever, even in the Library of Congress.

As I watched these memories disappear, I understood that some things just don't go away so easily. The pictures of the huge headstone remind me that it looms large just blocks away from where I live in his childhood home town. And of course I have three older siblings that daily demonstrate the effects of his tyranny.

Two fold today, having finished the destruction, I gladly took a break to watch what I knew was on, the final round of the very same Memorial Golf Tournament, in Dublin, Ohio, at Muirfield Village. Jack Nicklaus' legacy tournament. Tiger Woods won. Once again, doing enough right things, consistent enough to eek out a two shot win. Others had opportunities, but could not cash in. A moment on the back of the final green with Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods, it was as though the torch of legacy was being passed.

Today was also the annual Waters family reunion. I did not attend. Having a sordid past as fruit of this dysfunction, and as described in my book, "Sowing & Reaping a Fearless Heart ~ Convicted Not Condemned," I had taken on creating a family website, as a sort of legacy.
Well as all other things with this family have gone since I was born, it soured due to one particularly extra damaged sibling. So today I exorcised that demon too. I paid the sponsorship for the site then I deleted it. The only other administrator had commented to me one day that they'd rather see it deleted than turned over to Jezebel.

It's like finding out that the plastic bottle water I've been buying is, one, no better for me than from the tap and two, the bottle will never disintegrate in a land fill and the fossil fuels used to make it have damaged the ozone and the shipping of it has permanently wrought havoc to the watershed it was taken from. Needless to say, I don't purchase plastic bottled water any more and I'm not contributing to the strongholds of the Powers, Principalities and Dominions any more.

I was bottled water. I have been set free. It's not memorial day in the sense of a national holiday, but for me, just as I placed in the trash can, a wood shafted club (mashie), a commemoritive gift that was given to all the players of the Memorial Tournament that last time I caddied for the wife beating ass who gave me this last name, it's a memorable day just the same.

In the end, GOD wins. I much prefer my selected / chosen family above and beyond the family I was given and thank GOD for the one saving grace of my Mama. If not for her, I'd have to write a sequel book, "Sibling Rivalry ~ Welcome to my Nightmare."

And Waters Edge Ministries is about bringing H2O for those who thirst and the living water of Christ to needy every where. I bet a lot of people would trade the family they were given for something else. Some people relish their loyalty to family which I find absurd. Blood is not thicker than water.

The ONLY blood that matters it the blood of Christ Jesus.

If you're familiar with the bible, there are certainly not great depictions of family lives. Cain killed Abel, Jacob deceived his dad and took Esau's inheritance. Jesus was not accepted in his own home town. I can relate. It was Jesus who said a man's enemies will be the members of his own family. Proverbs tell us a friend is a treasure, but a brother is adversity.

Time to move on from all that foolishness. Oh, the nincompoops continue to harass me from behind the scenes, so easily traceable when I blog and they click the links and raise issues, just as they had with a filming incident.

Jesus did say, that even the evil are good to their own. And ya know, Jesus was indeed radical and stepped on a lot of toes. Many may have thought they were doing okay in keeping the ten commandments and along comes Jesus to tell them that if they even think of things they've sinned in their hearts.

And where does the integrity go then, because GOD knows all about it?

So, in keeping step and stepping on toes as a radical, I wonder what kind of stewards we are. Have we done all those good and wonderful things for family that we've been led to believe is biblically accurate?

Or have we left family behind and followed Jesus as he asked the disciples to. Let the dead bury their dead. Put your hand to the plow and do not look back.

That little pebble lurks, but we've learned along the way. The pebble won't change. It's purpose is clear, to torment and cause distress. It always lies in wait appearing to be many things. It's a nuisance and though your journey may be fixed in your sight...

... take the time to stop and deal with it and move on. It's worth no more of your precious journey for a greater cause.

The pebble was made to be one thing, but when poured into the sidewalk, it was dislodged by a dysfunction and now exhibits the nuscient behavior as a result. Don't blame it, think upstream and move on. Don't try to fix it, it can't be fixed but by super natural intervention.

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I was about to make this blog private requiring log in, but having received the largest royalty check for book sales ever and every penny of that going to Africa missions, I'll continue the transparency for the kingdom, even though the pebbles lurk on facebook and other cyber places, being what they are, a nuisance.

If you choose the family you got without a choice, then you're blessed. Like enjoying what you're paid to do for a living. Anita loves the family she was given. I'm blessed to have them in my life and pray they feel the same way.

Appreciate and Reciprocate rules the day in healthy relationships.

I'm no longer bottled Water and it's Good to be Free!

Peace out -

David Lee Waters Sr.,

To keep up with Waters Edge Ministries go to (No longer active) http://weministry.com/

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Living Out Loud - Welcome

This is where I'll post and vent and share the personal journey.

I'll blog the strictly ministry stuff at the now defunct http://weministry.blogspot.com

It can be difficult for me to separate ministry from personal life. Life IS ministry.

If you don't like what I post here, say so and/or don't come back.

This is my space to work through some issues in my life and share the ups and downs of the journey.

Thank you for visiting.

LIVE OUT LOUD!

David