By Dahni
© 2026, all rights reserved
Letters Written by an American
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The Race to Replace
With the midterms elections almost here, AI dominating individual choices & applications, business, and politics, world governments and essentially everything now, it sees to me there is a race going on. It appears to my eyes as a race to replace.
If you and I are not going to choose for ourselves, something or someone else will. It is human nature.
It is easier to make something than it is apparently, to stop and ask, should I or we do this? It is not so much as can we do it as it is should we be doing it at all?
Perhaps if you have read anything I have written lately, you might assume I have given up on myself. Maybe I have given up on the human race? I assure you that neither of these are true.
For me, I am no longer driven to succeed with even what I have tried to do for the past some 60 years. Some may or even everyone may consider my giving up and getting rid of all my treasure, my accumulation of the past years or some legacy? I have considered putting all my works into the repository known as the Internet Archive. I have considered even sending or keeping something for my son that does seem to be interested in the stories of a witness. I am a witness. But now it seems that neither the Internet Archive or something for my son seems doable or important to me anymore. What was my treasure, like my child or children if you will, is not just baggage. It has now become a heavy weight that makes it even more difficult to breathe or move forward.
I hope anyone else that may read this can choose what is most important to you and your life. Our dog Lady is a beautiful example of what I am trying to write here. She is likely on her last leg (no pun intended). Lady is 11 years old (77 in human years). She has arthritis and is limping. She is all but deaf now. But the good news with that, she no longer shakes during storms or the car wash. She is beginning to lose her eyesight, particularly in one eye (the one blue eye). It seems to be clouded over as if a cataract. Dogs like Lady often become confused over the loss of so many senses used primarily for navigation, happening near the same time. I think her sense of smell/taste is beginning to diminish now. She has others things as well, but she wakes up every morning wags her tail, happy to see us and is still fond of and capable of giving and receiving love. It just doesn’t get much better than or simpler than this. I am grateful she does not seem to be painfully suffering, but I am unsure. She has always been friendly and glad to see almost any life form. Going forward, I just need to be as sure as I possible can that she is comfortable and it is not just my desire to keep her around as long as possible.
The following verse means so much more today than it did when I first heard it, some sixty years ago. It says to me, I don’t need to ever judge you or tell you how you should live. I don’t ever need to cram my beliefs down your throat.
The word salvation in the following verse means “wholeness.” You and I have to do what is right for us. For myself, I needed to let go of much I have been involved with, for these past 60 years. I needed and still need to get rid of many things that may be good for others, but not for me. I needed to return to the gym and this time, make it a lifestyle change not a just the formation of a new habit.
“Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation [wholeness] with fear [reverence] and trembling [awe towards obedience].
Philippians 2:12 Kings James Version of 1611
Wag your tail like Lady. And to this I have concluded. In my life sometimes I have walked with my Father. Sometimes He carried me. Most likely the rest of the time, He has never left me nor forsaken me while I was heading in some other direction.
There is a lot of sorrow in the world. It’s twin is joy. Sometimes they each seem difficult to deal with. Sometimes they seem so similar, it is hard to tell which is which.
I and I am sure, you have often sought happiness. I chased it with a net like some illusive butterfly. Just when I thought I was about to catch it, it would float and flee just far enough away that I could see it, but not capture it.
In 1996, the late great Jimmy Buffet released a song from what I believe to be his finest work: ‘Banana Wind’. The song is: ‘Happily Ever After (Now and Then).’ I was so taken by this the first time I heard it and I have often sent something like this to others on their birthdays or other special days in their lives. I had an idyllic image from something that would invoke some wishful, fanciful, or expressive desire. My text was:
Happily Ever After (at least once in awhile)
This is the best I could hope for in this life for myself or for anyone else.
I do not suppose that everyone believes what I do or what and whom I believe in.
I have a wonderful relationship with one that to my surprise, it a steadfast atheist, or he does not know if he is a Christian or not. Even he cannot find fault with what I am trying to do. – not to disappear, but to consider those things and those life forms that are part of my life – which are important DAILY.
I am not a prophet. I am not going to predict that these are the end times, because like the Bible says, “no man [woman or child] knows the day time or hour. I just can’t imagine the world surviving for much longer being so driven by so much strife-confusion-bribery-extortion-love of money.
There is some goodness in this world and I truly believe it holds back the evil which is surfacing more and more. This affects, effects, and infects all of us in one way or others. For me, I am just tired and seek peace and to try and live as peaceable as I can according to what is inside me and to all I may encounter, in my day-today living.
I could be wrong, but I don’t think this world can continue much longer on the course it is on. It cannot be sustained. For my part, this world is not my home. At my age, it is good to plan for one’s soon release from these mortal coils. I am doing this now, to the best of my ability.
I am reminded that just as John the Baptist did, so should I do for the duration of my life⏤
“In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, And saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. For this is he that was spoken of by the prophet Esaias, saying, The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight.
Matthew 3:1-3 KJV of 1611
I may not carry the ministries or gifts to the Church or the world as an apostle, a prophet, an evangelist, pastor or a teacher [Ephesians 4:11], but if they are not around and God willing, I can “do the work of” any or all of them that is needed. In II Timothy 4:5 Timothy was not an evangelist, but he was told to “do the work of” one. God is not a prospector or persons, only conditions.
And finally, God so loved the world that he gave his only son, Jesus Christ. If I am one of His, can I not love like this? Jesus Christ laid his life down for you and I. What is the greatest love I can share— Preach [publicly expound or teach God’s Word]. It is the calling. It is the love. For now, until my death or God calls me home at the return of Christ, preach the word in season or out meaning, all the time. To say that I am a witness means, the real witness of the resurrection of Jesus Christ is within me. This is what I am to preach.
“I charge thee therefore before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, who shall judge the quick and the dead at his appearing and his kingdom; Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; “
II Timothy 4:1,2 KJV of 1611
How? Why?
“But sanctify [set apart] the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear [awe towards obedience]:”
I Peter 3:15 KJV of 1611
It just makes UN-common sense,
–Dahni
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