Have you lost hope that people can change?

Wounded Times
Kathie Costos
May 10, 2023

Michelangelo, conversione di saulo, 1542-45, 10,1.jpg

These are troubling times we live in. That is one thing most of us agree on. It is easy to lose hope that people can change and want to repair the rift instead of making it wider and deeper. The problem is not in the fact it happened but in our own desire to change what is.

Impossible Transformations: How Do People Change?

People’s Minds Are Often Not Led By Reason or Facts
Research shows that, despite public belief, people’s minds are often not led by reason or facts. Instead, forces like confirmation bias and group membership shape their judgment and belief systems. TedX

The article went on to add,

“Agreeing with the group stimulates the reward pathway; trying to defy the group stimulates many of the same brain regions that fire during drug withdrawal,” the article states. This stimulation explains why and how people can believe so strongly in anti-science beliefs that are supported by group membership rather than founded on fact or reason.

People can change and we've seen evidence of that in negative as well as positive ways.

In the same article, there was this video worth watching if you are seeking some proof.

Gerardo Lopez grew up in gang territory in Los Angeles, California, and was just 14 years old when he joined MS-13, the notorious Salvadorian gang. Why did he join and why did he leave? In this courageous talk, Gerardo reveals how we can help others get out and stay out of gangs. Gerardo "Clever" Lopez has worked in gang intervention for over two decades. Formerly of the notorious Los Angeles gang MS-13, Gerardo escaped gang life and now ensures that at-risk youth from making the same mistakes. He is the Executive Director of the Denver chapter of Homies Unidos, a nonprofit dedicated to ending violence and promoting peace through gang intervention and prevention. Gerardo is an avid baseball fan waiting for the Dodgers to win the World Series, and the subject of the award-winning, short documentary CLEVER. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

If you want more, then a perfect example of this is Saul of Tarsus. Most people know him as Saint Paul. He went on the preach to and reach the Gentiles. None of what he accomplished would have been possible if God and Jesus gave up on him. They knew his soul and his intentions well enough to keep trying to get through to him.

He was hunting down followers of Jesus after He returned to heaven. He went with "group membership" and was regarded as heroic in his endeavors to eradicate the heretical believers. According to all accounts, he was filled with joy as they were being executed.

Saul Makes Trouble for the Church
At that time the church in Jerusalem suffered terribly. All of the Lord's followers, except the apostles, were scattered everywhere in Judea and Samaria. 3 Saul started making a lot of trouble for the church. He went from house to house, arresting men and women and putting them in jail.

He was convinced that the group of people he belonged to were right and it was all reinforced by his belief that he was serving God. After all, his friends admired him and his dedication to killing off the followers of Jesus. That is until he was made to understand how blind he was on the road to Damascus.

The Damascus Road: Saul Converted
9 Then Saul, still breathing threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, went to the high priest 2 and asked letters from him to the synagogues of Damascus, so that if he found any who were of the Way, whether men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem.

3 As he journeyed he came near Damascus, and suddenly a light shone around him from heaven. 4 Then he fell to the ground, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting Me?”

5 And he said, “Who are You, Lord?”

Then the Lord said, “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting. It is hard for you to kick against the goads.”

6 So he, trembling and astonished, said, “Lord, what do You want me to do?”

Then the Lord said to him, “Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.”

7 And the men who journeyed with him stood speechless, hearing a voice but seeing no one. 8 Then Saul arose from the ground, and when his eyes were opened he saw no one. But they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. 9 And he was three days without sight, and neither ate nor drank.

After he was able to see clearly, most of the people he knew turned against him as he turned closer to God and what he was supposed to do, and was forgiven for all he had done. Was he perfect afterward? No. God does not require perfection from anyone.

All this goes to show that human nature has not changed since the beginning of time. Our thoughts have changed. Our beliefs changed. Our view of the world changed. What has not changed is our ability to change ourselves.

No matter how rotten you see others, consider the simple fact that people doing bad things make the news no matter where you live. There are still more good people in the world and many of them, as you watched in the video above, changed their ways and then went on to help others find their way to change as well. It is all choices we make to do or ignore.

People, like Saul, were led to believe the lies and it was up to him to believe the truth or insist on following the mob rulers and make people suffer for the lies they spread.

What do you do when you need to choose between what you know is right, truthful, and honorable while everyone you know acts against what you know in your soul is wrong and terrible? Do you find the courage to stand up and walk away from them or do you stay with them while they continue to infect your soul? Are you avoiding allowing the miracle that is waiting for you to make you the best person you can be? 

"O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things?"

Wounded Times

Kathie Costos

May 9, 2023

Let it be this if you take nothing else away from this post, remember this. James 2:14-17

14 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him?

15 If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food,

16 And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit?

17 Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone.

How often have you heard people offering "thoughts and prayers" when others are hurting? More people dying and being wounded, along with being tariffed because someone decided they wanted to kill as many strangers as possible, as fast as possible? 

I'm sure you're tired of hearing it as much as you are repulsed by the fact their thoughts do not prove they are thinking about solutions. It proves their prayers are not really for the lives but more so for what they want to protect. Guns and the expanded ability of anyone to get them, load them, and aim them at everyone in their path, matter more than people just trying to live their lives.

How often have you heard people claiming that the problem is mental illness and not guns used to kill others? For whatever reason, they turn around and, not only protect the guns but unconscionably expand the ability for more people to obtain them.

These same people refuse to fund mental health agencies to care for those with that illness. The result is, more people facing mental health challenges they would not have had had it not been for the mass murderers given the ability to traumatize them. We have an ever-increasing population of people with #PTSD and will keep claiming more lives because hope has been taken from them due to the lack of deeds.

All too often, these same people turn around and claim to be Christian leaders, yet show nothing Christlike in their deeds. Most people see them for what they truly are. They are usurpers of faith and what they view as power over the people they are supposed to be serving.

Some people will assume they are to be believed because they show up at church, or, just say the words they believe. Never once allowing the simple truth that people can claim to be/believe anything they want to say, and yet, scriptures point out that is not what we should pay attention to.

"34 O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.

35 A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things." 

Matthew 12:34-35

If they were speaking the truth, they would prove it in what they do. It is up to you to prove what it is you value more with your own deeds. Contact them since you pay for their offices, phone lines, computers, and staff to respond to you. If they do not change their ways, change their jobs by voting them out of office. Stop supporting those that use your true faith as a weapon of power for themselves.

Deep dive research-veteran suicides 44 a day!

Veterans' Healthcare and the Political Divide after a Mass Shooting

CNN's Kim Brunhuber speaks with professor and retired U.S. Air Force colonel, Mona Pearl Treyball, about veterans' mental health care in the wake of the mass shooting in Atlanta, where authorities say the shooter was a veteran. Watch the video here

Who is Mona Pearl Treyball? Why is what she said about the rate of suicides in veterans being closer to 44 a day important? Because too many just jumped on the headline of 22 a day and never once bothered to read the report from the VA back in 2012!

I did. I've been screaming about all this ever since but without the data, all I had was an educated guess. I thought it was over 70. Maybe I'm still right when you factor everything else in. The thing is, we know she has facts.

I just got vindicated because I was called a liar when I said it wasn't 22 a day. No matter who I talked to and pointed out the facts, I was called a liar. I was called a liar by strangers. What hurt the most was that I was also called a liar by friends that knew how seriously I took all this. All of it piled up and I stopped trying to help change the outcome for veterans. 

Sure I still do what I can but considering no one is talking about PTSD in the rest of us, I figured I'd be able to make a bigger difference without people deciding to make money off our suffering and get in the way of what works.

US Senator uncommon mental health champion

After a whirlwind year, John Fetterman is back in the Senate

NPR
Manuela López Restrepo
April 20, 2023

Then in February, after a hospital visit related to lightheadedness, Fetterman checked himself into Walter Reed medical center to receive treatment for clinical depression.

Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) speaks to reporters on the way to the weekly Senate Policy Luncheons at the U.S. Capitol Building on April 18, 2023 in Washington, DC. Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

What's the big deal? Fetterman's public acknowledgment of his own mental health struggles is rare for politicians, even as depression has become an increasingly common challenge for Americans.

After six weeks of treatment at Walter Reed National Medical Center's neuro-psychology unit, Fetterman says his doctor told him his depression was in remission. Depression in stroke survivors is fairly common. NPR's Rhitu Chaterjee also reported that around 30% of stroke patients will go on to have depression in the first five years after the stroke. That risk increases if they've already dealt with depression in the past, like Fetterman. With his transparency, Fetterman has created a platform for discussing mental health issues, and encouraged other politicians to share their own stories.

On creating a platform to discuss mental health:

I'm honored to have the ability to try to pay it forward, because I was blessed in my opportunities. I want to say the kinds of things that I would have heard years ago that got me into action. And I would tell anybody listening to this interview, if you suffer from depression, or you have a loved one, please let them know that you don't need to just suffer with that depression. Get treatment, and get help. If I'd had done that years ago, I would not have had to put my family and myself and my colleagues [through] that if I had gotten help.

So if you suffer from it, you have an opportunity to get rid of it. And I didn't believe it. But right now I'm the guy that didn't believe that I could get rid of my depression. And now I did.
learn more here

Mental Health Awareness because life can get better!

May is Mental Health Awareness Month

American Hospital Association

As Mental Health Awareness Month, May is a time to raise awareness of and reduce the stigma surrounding behavioral health issues, as well as highlighting the ways how mental illness and addiction can affect all of us – patients, providers, families, and our society at large.

Hospitals and health systems play an important role in the conversations we have around mental health care, including creating partnerships that address behavioral health issues in non-traditional ways. Many of our members are creating new innovations around how behavioral health disorders are identified and treated—through the integration of physical and behavioral health services, changes in their emergency departments and inpatient and outpatient settings. These strategies improve the overall value of health care and can lead to improvements in patient outcomes, quality of care and total costs.

As part of its long-standing commitment to supporting all organizations that work in the realm of behavioral health care, AHA supports the integration of behavioral and physical health, and will continue to help hospitals as they play key roles in establishing partnerships and programs to ensure access to the full continuum of behavioral health care for all who need it.
Learn more here

While most online sites reference Mental Health Awareness Month, they do it implying it only applies to veterans. The truth is, it applies to everyone needing help with the illnesses that strike the mind. Well, we all have one. Don't we?

You could be the one with the need, or it could be a family member or someone else you care about. If you have the wrong idea about the basis of mental health, then you as the one living with it, or caring about someone can jump to the wrong assumptions. It can make your lives suck big time instead of getting better.

How many times do you have to see a commercial for medications and how life can become better than what it is? Do you get the point you are not the only one needing help?

Then add this. There are so many others dealing with the same things you are, that companies are advertising it and spending huge sums of money. Would they do that if you were the only one? Nope!

If you are a veteran then go to Make The Connection and watch some of the videos they have up. This one is about living in the present because if you're still living in the past, you need to remember you don't live there anymore! This veteran was dealing with physical and mental health needs.

This one is for everyone else, but remember, you can still learn a priceless lesson from others. What is it? THAT LIFE CAN GET BETTER!