The Mystery Of God

By Richard Holtz

This book is a heart felt description of a mans' quest to learn about God.  I said when I started this walk with God that I wanted to know Him, and I did not want to just believe in Him or have Faith in Him, but I wanted to know Him.  You will find something most entertaining, and some things very revealing, but my hope is that you will find a sincerity in this book that will cause each of you to question, what is my LIFE worth.  To a loving God your life is worth everything, but it is this sincere search to know God that has answered this question for me.

• Language: English
• Publisher: donkeeyore
• Release date: Nov 21, 2022
• ISBN: 9798215440452

Book preview

THE

MYSTERY

OF GOD

REVELATION

TO AN ORDINARY

BLUE COLLAR

MAN

By Richard L. Holtz

Dedicated to Lorraine Tracy my very near and dear friend, who epitomized the character that this book is all about

THE MYSTERY OF GOD

Revelation to an Ordinary Blue-Collar Man

Introduction

Let me say, to start off this book, there is absolutely no reason for you to pick up this book to read.  For that matter, I have no special degrees, or qualifications, other than the experience of life, that would kindle an interest in the things that I have to say.  The title on the book is just what it says it is the mystery of God, from the perspective of an individual, who works in the blue-collar environment, and battles in the spiritual trenches of life on a daily basis.  I am not an elitist by any stretch of the imagination, and the only reason that I am attempting this most challenging of efforts is because many people, who have read school papers, or who have read letters, or other things that I have written, they have encouraged me that my writing style is very readable, and that I should consider writing as a profession.  So, with these thoughts in mind, I am going to tackle this subject of extreme ambiguity, to a majority of the blue-collar working class, and with my limited ability of expression I will try to make sense of this most important topic to a class of humanity that is begging for answers. 

In my opening statements I mentioned that I have limited experience, but what experience I do have can be summed up in the living of life.  I have taken many courses at the university level, and it has been a wonderful eye-opening experience, but I believe that my greatest education has come from my vocational endeavors.  This experience as a manual laborer, in and of itself, can be the greatest educator of humanity that is available.  When I was young it was always told to me that, ‘if you work hard, you will always be able to get ahead.’  Well, this statement does not hold water anymore, because we have become so technological in our means that it has become more important to, Work harder at being smarter, than just plain working hard.  The old days of the factory work, and assembly lines, and manual labor, although they still have their place in society; have been replaced by machines that produce products faster, and with more efficiency.  Robotics have made assembly lines more effective, and faster, and much needed manual labor such as construction jobs, and other hands-on work, at farms, and ranches, have been taken by men and women who will be willing to take a lesser wage just so they can have work.  Also, employers that need these labors performed, hire workers who are available to work to meet the time deadlines of harvesting, or construction timelines so they hire men or women that will do the job that others think is below their perceived image of themselves.

Hard work has tremendous benefits, and I believe that it is a Divine appointment, that men work hard, and earn their keep in this life, but the days of living the American dream as someone who does not have a higher education, or a vocational training have been numbered.  As companies interview new people for positions in their company, they focus on educational background, or military service, as a means of weighing the character of each applicant, or prospective employee.  So, I try to encourage the young people that are in middle school and high school to work hard at their studies and try to find their niche in life. Find something that interests them the most, and work as hard at learning and understanding this chosen aspect of life, that they enjoy, so that it can be a field that they can compete in when the time has come for them to enter the work world.  There are still no guarantees, but if they want to have a fighting chance at success in this life, they need to concentrate on their studies in school so that they can have the best opportunities when the education ends, and the real work begins. 

I remember my father, as he worked in the road construction business, and he had to go to where the work was, because they were not always building roads in our immediate area.  He would work many hours overtime, and many weekends, just so that he could make ends meet financially for our family.  He was very frugal with his money, and he always made sure that every bill was paid first before we could have any fun as a family that required money, such as amusement parks, or bowling, or other activities (still a very good practice this day and age).  We didn’t have charge cards back then, but I am sure that if they were available; my father would have never owned one anyway.  But I was deceived by this life that my father had presented as a successful life.  I believed that hard work did pay off, and that education was something for somebody else, and that I would be just fine if I worked hard wherever I was working.  I was blind to what was going to happen in the future, and I was trapped in the vicious mantra, if you work hard, you will always get ahead.  Well, it turned out that companies folded, and other jobs opened up, and I moved from job to job, almost always changing to a better paying job, but never realizing that this was a dead-end life cycle that led me too nowhere.  By the time I learned this lesson it had become too late, and now I am in the position that I will probably have to work two jobs for the rest of my life just so that I can make ends meet from month to month. 

I am not bringing this point up as a woe is me, or a self-pity issue, no, I am using this as a foundation for the lessons that life has taught me.  This will be the basis for this whole book, because I am not alone in this sinking boat, and as the separations of classes, from the rich, to the middle class, to the poor, get wider, the ability for information to reach to all levels will become more difficult.  I am reaching out to parents, to younger students, and even to those who are still young enough to change their course and try to better themselves through education, or through technical institutions.  I am trying to give this message as a message of hope for those who feel that life may have passed them by, but it is still within each of their powers to change their path, and suck-it-up and make something of this life that may be beyond their wildest imaginations.  It may be very difficult, and the road may seem long and arduous, but the rewards, which many of us in the blue-collar sector of life are too shortsighted to see, the rewards will be much greater than the work that we put into it, if we can just look beyond ourselves, and look upward to God.  It is my understanding that the only thing that we take with us from this life is the knowledge that we gained, so if for no other reason than to have an enhanced knowledge in the afterlife, try to better yourself in whatever way you can and choose to move forward in this life so that you can feel the since of accomplishment that comes with greater understanding. 

As some insightful background to the journey that I have traveled to bring me to this point in my life where I have decided to write this book, I will paraphrase as much as possible to open your understanding about me.  I started my educational career as a psychology major at the College of Metro State.  This came as a response to my inclination to want to make a difference in the society that I so loved and appreciated.  As I embarked on this journey, I realized that I could only make a difference as a psychologist with those clients that actually bothered to retain me as a professional counsel on their behalf.  So, I reconsidered my direction and thought that if I truly wanted to make a difference I would have to get into the educational field where my clientele would be more extensive, my influence would reach a broader range of individuals, and I would always have a captive audience.  So, I determined to get a degree in biology, and then get my certification to teach at the secondary level.  After a couple of years of study, I was married and started a family, and this subsequently put my education on hold.  After a leave of several years from education I was given the opportunity to teach physical education at a charter school part time.  This truly was a blessing in my life, and for five- and one-half years I diligently performed my responsibilities as an educator.  Two- and one-half years into this experience I was told that if I finished my education, and received my degree, that I would be hired on as the full time PE teacher.  As ominous as this task seemed, I was ready to give my very best efforts to this agenda, and so I enrolled at the University and began to study Physical Education, feeling that this would make me more qualified to teach physical education.  Please be aware that I was always working another full-time job during these studies and teaching opportunity, so I understand when you are engaged in a good cause there might not be time to get much rest.  To make this already long story short, I was dismissed as the gym teacher, failing to complete my degree by one class, and the job that I was working at changed their tuition reimbursement policy so that I was not able to receive tuition help from them, so I had to abandon this course, and 150+ credit hours later, I am a man without a degree, but a man that has traveled a road that not many would journey. 

So, I think that with this in mind, I may not qualify as someone who has the academic background to write this book.  I may not qualify as someone who has counseled enough to understand some of the deep and troubling humanitarian issues.  I may not even qualify in an articulate since to capture your interest and provoke thought in your mind.  But the one thing that I am qualified to speak on is how this life can be very tough, and difficult, and for a majority of the blue collar force that makes up a majority of the working class, I am qualified to relate to the pain, to relate to the questions, and to give some insight as to what my perceptions are to how the mystery of God might be for a very hard working, cynical, confused, but wishful blue collar class.  If by chance this book does make it to a bookstore, and it can touch the life of just one person in a positive way then all of the effort and time that went into this book will have been incredibly well spent. 

CHAPTER ONE

LOOKING AT THE BROAD SPECTRUM OF LIFE

I have completely read through and participated in some in-depth studies of the scriptures available to us on several occasions since I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Savior back around 1980.  I have always stated that, I know enough about the scriptures to make me dangerous.  But the one thing that I do know about the study of scripture is that the knowledge that can be gained by such study is very enlightening to Gods’ dealings with humanity and the direction that I believe that our Heavenly Father wishes us to travel.  Although I have heard many people tell me that the messages of the Bible are somewhat vague, and ambivalent, left up to individual interpretation, I have found them to be quite insightful, and persuasive.  This all comes from the perspective that I wanted to find out about God, and His dealings with man, and it is