Josh Plovanic's Writings and Thoughts

I am forever yours.  In skies of countless stars This universe is ours and I am forever yours Across the oceans Into the forests to the ivory pinnacles  Of mountains that almost touch heaven's doors I am forever yours Through floods or fires through blood and liars through mud and mires I am forever yours My dearest friend My greatest King I live for you  my king of dreams my lord of Hosts You'll guide me home to the greatest home I'll ever know Even in pain With you I gain I never lose  for loving you can only take  you up the stairs and not forsake  the greatest love forever endures the biggest heartbreaks and biggest wars You'll stand by me and open doors and I will be forever yours

A name is everything. It's how everyone else knows who you are and what you are. Your name, aside from your dreams and hopes, is the most important part of your personhood. If there is one thing that gives a person individuality and supersedes any typecast or category it is the fact that we all have names. Names are greater than numbers. Names, more often than not, have meaning and history that goes beyond what a number can give something. There is a difference between "Josh" and "human #4636" My name has more value than a number, primarily because it has more meaning. It's a value that you can't put a monetary worth on. If you only number people, that makes them more of a product with quantity than people. It's the same reason why cattle ranchers don't name their cattle. They number them. A name would give them more of a personhood that would make it harder to kill them. It creates emotions and sympathy toward the animal. When someone goes to pr

  One thing I've learned about Jesus is, to him, human hierarchies are quite irrelevant and of no real significance. His example was that the low was actually high and the high was actually low. He himself came as a servant and in terms of his social standing at times he was not much of a step up from a slave. He talked of a heaven where slaves were free and the "first place" people of this world will be last in heaven, and that the "last place" people will be first in heaven. His main enemies in life were the religious elites and worldly kings, and his best friends were lepers, sinners, tax collectors, adulterers, and "undesirables" of the time. The main lesson I learned from this is "Don't Judge a King by His Cloak" and that, to God, human concepts of hierarchy and class are quite silly and just downright misleading in terms of how we should value people and who we should esteem. The hierarchy humans make is not the same hierarchy that

Do not shed your wrath upon me, Lord But shed upon me your mercy. Do not lay the hand of Judgement upon me, Lord But lay upon me your healing When the enemy cuts me down or kicks the foundation of my life from under me, by your grace may your angels lift me high on wings of glory and carry me over the abyss. May I walk with you as you hold my hand in the darkness. With your sword, cut down the wolves and lions who want to eat up my flesh. With your word, rebuke the slanderers who cut me down amongst themselves and attack me with lies and hate. With your shield, protect my body, my mind, and my spirit from the arrows of demons and men of shadows and wicked counsels. With your heart, love me to the inconceivable depths and fathoms of who you are. With your army, vanquish all the enemies of light and righteousness, and destroy the legions of darkness and the agents of fear and death. With your Kingdom, may you rule and govern the whole of infinity forever.

Nothing easy is glorious, at least in terms of worldly glory. You feel a lot more euphoria and a lot more accomplished when you win against a much stronger opponent than when you bludgeon the hell out of a weaker one. It's easy to beat the weak, that's why there's little glory in it. I've noticed that it is much harder to do those "virtues" and do "goodness" well than it is to be a menace or wicked. It's easy to destroy. It's hard to create. It's easy to hurt someone. It's hard to heal someone. It's easy to run away. It's hard to be brave It's easy to condemn. It's hard to restore. It's easy to judge. It's hard to give mercy It's easy to overindulge. It's hard to control yourself It's easy to break. It's hard to fix. It's easy to quit. It's hard to endure to the end. It's easy to hold a grudge. It's hard to forgive It's easy to sin. It's hard to clean up. It's easy to

The Lord is my courage and my liberty Who shall conquer me? The Lord is my hope that never dies How shall I despair? When the enemy strikes at me, He is my shield. When the darkness wounds me, He mends me. In bondage, He frees me In iniquity, He forgives me In fear He gives me courage In doubt He gives me knowledge If I could request anything of you Lord It would be to explore the depths of your mind And the fathoms of your heart To traverse the boundlessness of your creations And taste the limitless Liberty of your glory May you dwell in my mind and spirit, and be my companion as I travel infinity Be my greatest defender, my champion, and my merciful King. Help me face this life with dignity and honor, And help me face my sins and failures with grace May you strengthen me, and make me a better friend and worker. Guide me through both my success and failure. May you be my rock with a bottomless foundation as I face the wickedness of this world, and may you love me and protect me as ete

 The sword of Truth, which is the Word, cuts at your mind with words you never heard. It cuts so deep, your thoughts will bleed With thoughts you never thought you'd need The sword cuts into shackles and cells Brings light and hope to living hells It cuts deep into prisons of mind Shines the light of truth for you to find It cuts into the Devil's wicked hate And slices fear's great hold on fate The sword cuts death like food on your plate With it, great worlds he will liberate The darkest stance stands no chance He cuts bad ideas into dust He deals his vengeance almost like a dance His sword of words knows no blunt or rust

  They will call you names. They will assign a label or category on you. They will identify you as an out-group, as an enemy, and weaponize your beliefs, your culture, and your history against you. You will be restricted in what kind of jobs you can get, where you can move, and what kind of social circles and activities you can partake in. You will not get out of this world without some sort of mark on you, on your record, in your history. You will be persecuted if you deviate from, or do not meet, a standard. Your dreams will be often inaccessible, all because of a label or a category. They will put you in a box, and if they can't put you in a box, they will outcast you as an anomoly. Humans can't understand without labeling, and it makes people feel better to label and categorize. It helps them cope with the discomfort and fear. Labeling and demonizing the label is how hatred is fostered towards other human beings. Grouping people into categories creates an inequality, whethe

Hatred has plagued humanity since its dawn. It has caused more death, more suffering, and more war than we can possibly reckon with. From my observations, I look at hatred as having two primary causes; Fear...and disgust. Fear causes people to want to eliminate the source of their fear. Fear drives hatred because of this. You end up hating what frightens you and it's a basic defense instinct. If you want to get people to hate someone or something over time, make them afraid of it. Make them see it as a threat. Disgust is the second major cause of hatred. Disgust has less to do with fear and more to do with revulsion. A sense that something is so lowly and gross that it doesn't deserve to exist. It doesn't even have to be a threat to you like the fear situation. It can be something harmless, like a bug, but the revulsion and grossness that this thing causes leads you to want to destroy it even when it poses no threat. Disgust, I've noticed, has caused far more potent hat