Please read the title of this post before you go on and think about this. I don't want to be a stumbling block to anyone, but I need a good rant bad. Yeah, yeah, TWSS.
The other day, I got one of those email bad luck to you if you don't pass this on / good luck to you if you do pass this on emails. God, how I hate those. No, I did not just take His name in vain. I really do lift my heart and voice to Him today as I write this. I really, REALLY need His presence with me as I write this.
You see, while I have no trouble passing down the Happy Butterfly emails, or the pretty pictures emails, or the uplifting message emails, or the you're gonna laugh so hard that you'll be dizzy emails, I will not be passing these down. A better person would leave it at that. But you see, I am not a better person...
WHAT IN THE NAME OF GUMBY ARE THESE PEOPLE WHO SEND THIS THINKING!? I consider myself to have a good relationship with my creator. I love Jesus. Jesus loves me. That should make me the proverbial school girl skipping through a field of daisies singing songs from Sunday School! But you know what? That's not me...
I have posted before on how my mom was diagnosed as never able to walk again on a day I deleted one of these email bad luck/good luck chain letters. The post was only one paragraph, so it won't take long to click back, but if you don't want to, the gist of it is that I struggled with guilt for causing my mom's illness after that. As a Christian, I knew better, yet still felt icky. I went to Confession (during the time of the posting I linked), and the priest told me that it is the devil whispering to me that I caused mom's illness by ignoring a chain letter, and it is the devil who caused me to fear the email I posted about.
I also posted how surviving the email death curse helped me realize how bogus all of them are, and stated that I wouldn't worry about it ever again. HAH! If you can take reading the bad luck my "friend" throws my way if I don't send this to ten people, continue reading. If you are superstious, or just feel a nervous churning in your stomach, don't read on. I am going to post a picture which has nothing to do with this post now so your eyes don't see more than your heart can handle. It's okay. I am not judging. If I got tripped up in worry myself, I'd be a hypocrite to judge someone else having similar issues.
Subject: Read Alone (DO NOT DELETE) this is interesting
Read
Alone.....
Especially the Poem
I believe whatever is in store for
us will be for us.
The poem is very true, unfortunately.
Make sure you read the poem!
CASE 1: Kelly Sedey had one wish,
for her boyfriend of three years,
David Marsden, to propose to her.
Then one day when she was out
to lunch David proposed!
She accepted, but then had to leave
because she had a meeting in 20 min.
When she got to her office,
she noticed on her computer she had some e-mail's.
She checked it, the usual stuff
from her friends, but then she saw one
that she had never gotten before.
It was this poem. She simply deleted it
without even reading all of it.
>
BIG MISTAKE! Later that evening,
she received a phone call from the
police
It was about DAVID! He had been in an accident
with an 18 wheeler. He didn't survive!
Okay, friend who sent email, you believe this chain letter you wrote, and are willing to put my Bob in jeopardy. Thanks a lot! Guess who is no longer on my Christmas list!
CASE 2: Take Katie Robinson She received this poem
and being the believer that she was
she sent it to a few of her friends but
didn't have enough e-mail addresses to send out
the full 5 that you must.
Three days later, Katie went to a masquerade ball.
Later that night when she left to get to her car,
she was killed in that spot by a
hit-and-run drunk driver.
Okay, friend who sent the email, now you are willing to put my life in jeopardy to get your ten people list. Thank you. Whether I believe in email bad luck or not, I now know who would push me aside in a fire to get out. So thank you, that is always useful information to have.
CASE 3: Charles sent this poem out
within 45 minutes of reading it.
Not even 4 hours later walking along the street
to his new job interview with a really big company, !
when he ran into Cynthia,
his secret love of many years. Cynthia came up to him
and told him of her passionate crush on him
that she had had for 2 years.
Three days later, he proposed to her and they got married..
Cynthia and Charles are still married
happy as ever!
Well good for him! Let's not make the mistake of believing that maybe God blessed Charlie. It was good luck. Good luck brought on from this email you are passing down now. Woo hoo.
I don't want luck. Any of it, good or bad. I want the blessings God gives me, even the ones I don't recognize as blessings at the moment. They come with no strings attached. He blesses me because He loves me. That isn't to say that He won't bless the work of my hands, if that work is His will. But He isn't waiting to bless or zap me based on a trivial email! He blessed me with His Son Jesus, even though I deserve curses instead. He also blesses me with my husband, who your bad luck email seeks to threaten, and my own life, which that email I blogged about a year ago seeked to threaten, and my mom who.....you get the idea. You claim to want to bring me the good luck.....As I have asked you privately, KEEP IT! I don't need it, I don't want it.
Who on my email list would I sacrifice for it? Not a one!
I wish I could say I am not nervous now. I wish I was a better Christian. Can I ask those of you who read through to pray for Bob and me, that I don't kill him or myself when I delete that email today. Thanks. I wish I didn't need to ask. I wish my faith was stronger. Again thanks.
I have not included the poem. If you are wondering about it at all, the gist of it was to get in touch with old friends and family and let them know you love them before time slips away, and it is too late. I haven't included it here because I don't want someone who accidently lands here to have the tools to cut and paste this into the chain letter I am deleting. It's too bad, too, because it wasn't a bad poem.
10 comments:
I hate those emails too, Helen, and I really hate it when they come from a good friend, or church friend! Ugh. Awkward. I always delete them because I figure if God wants me to read about some divine intervention then the B-I-B-L-E, yeah, that's the book for me. I don't need no stinkin' poem. Throw me a bone with Psalms or Revelation, and I have all the "luck" I need.
Praying for you and Bob. God has His plans for you. A plan of hope and a future.
Hit delete, my friend. It really annoys satan.
I'm totally with you- don't like those emails. I may love everything it says, but I won't pass it along because it gives me an ultimatum or says I'll receive some great gift. Like you said, I believe in the faithfulness and blessing of God. I get a lot of these from good solid Christians. They probably think I'm a jerk for not sending it on.
I also hate the ones that say "if you're a real Christian send this to 30 people." Since when does that prove I'm a Christian? Sheesh, leave me alone already! Okay, I'm starting my own rant. I'm gonna simmer down now.
First off, that is one freaky @$$ sheep! I like it.
And you know how I feel about those emails...Don't EVEN get me started!
Do you know who sends those stupid things to me all the time? My dad and his wife. Because he thinks I'm some kind of super Christian because I'm so involved in church, he wants to make sure I'm up to date on all the wonderful naked fat angel emails currently circulating. Sorry, Dad. I'm deleting your silly little email, usually unread.
God bless you Helen- and 10 of your closest friends....ONLY if you click on my name and wish me the same. Otherwise....you know what happens!
I'm with ya'. I think the day of the storm I deleted two!
But the day our electricity came back on I deleted 3!
They don't scare me. I hate the ones that say, "Pass this along to all your friends, including me..." Then, they've caught ya'.
Stan has no cyber power other than temptation.
Who is Stan and why is he tempting Sherri?
Helen, I wish that you could learn to express yourself and really tell us how you feel about this. Maybe we should all send you some good luck chain letters to help you out.
I was listening to the radio last night and the DJ was ranting about this same thing!! One of the good points she made is that when you start believing that doing x,y, and z MAKES God do something...it's kind of like you are trying to play God. That's a bad place to be! I cannot tell you how many of these I used to get when I worked for Girl Scouts. I'm sure my co-workers thought I was going to drop dead at any moment from bad luck!
Just so you know that I hate forwards so much that I will put your name and email address on mailing lists if you forward me crap. Floating and disappearing Jesus is exempt from this threat.
It is my belief that if I get enough junk into their inbox they won't be able to forward anything else to anyone so I'm doing the world a favor.
If it is erroneous (look at all the big words I'm using lately) then I'll reply with a link to snopes or something because I'm nice like that but I am still putting your name and email on every mailing list I can find. You will be getting stuff for viagra, cialis, male enhancement, female stuff ... your spouse (if you are married) will assume you aren't satisfied and you will have to devote so much time to fixing you relationships that you won't have time to send me stuff I didn't want.
I did not give you my email address because I thought it would be nice to have more crap sent to me. I gave you my address because I wanted to get real correspondence from you about important things. That includes whatever is happening in your life not what found it's way into your in box. If I want to know about Obama or other news items I will look it up online thank you.
Of course everyone will note that my email address is not on my site. This is why. I love to help people and those I have helped can attest to that. When my mail box is full of crap I will miss important stuff like requests to fix a blog (FOTTSP, katdish, and Candy you are welcome) or requests for a guest post or my wife asking me to pick up my daughter from school.
Do you want to have it on your conscience when my daughter got stranded at school because of 5 million forwards about stuff that is wrong, stupid, cursed/blessed, or otherwise a waste of time? Well do you, Punk!?!?!
/end rant
Helen, why you gotta call me out like that on your blog? I just wanted to see the cool picture that magically pops up on my screen when I send out an email to 6 of my friends. Sheesh...
Also, are you saying you want off my lists of people for low-cost, Viagra, online degrees and cheap software?
Sing it, sister!
I absolutely despise these things and refuse to bow to their pressure.
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