Unscrambling Eggs: My Journey with God

By Rick Shannon

What happens when the two most powerful words in the bible are put together?

“But God...”

Every one of us is going through life. How we are doing at it depends on many factors. Who is your family? What neighborhood did you grow up in? Did your family have money? Were you poor? Were you rich? Were you somewhere in the middle? The list goes on and on.

All of these things influence your belief system. It can determine who you are as a person. How you react to things. How driven you are. How you relate to others, etc...

I knew beyond knowing the way things were. I knew what I was doing, where I was going, and how I was going to get there. I didn’t need anyone else telling me, showing me, or teaching me how to be ME. I had a great job, a lot of respect, powerful position, and money! I had it ALL!

So I thought.

Unscrambling Eggs, takes a walk through some of the big topics in my life that changed who I am. In each chapter, it uncovers those life lessons that I didn’t think I needed.

God had other plans...

I hope you enjoy my stories. This book is just an overview of things I think I’m supposed to share with you. This is just the beginning.

Stay Tuned...

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Feb 15, 2019
• ISBN: 9781973653226

Rick Shannon

Wanna know how to get back up after being knocked down? Rick Shannon has been through a lot of life’s struggles but always seems to come out stronger on the other side of each one! Today, Rick is an entrepreneur that never had any intention of being an author. So much for that!

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Copyright © 2019 Rick Shannon.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-5321-9 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-5320-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-5322-6 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2019901459

WestBow Press rev. date: 02/15/2019

Contents

Garbage In/Garbage Out

Building Fences

You Don’t Have to Play Baseball

Influenced or Controlled

All about Me

The Hole

Boxes

Reality Check

He Said/She Said

The Uglies

Release

Behind the Curtain

A Little Swim

The Beginning

Garbage In/

Garbage Out

Your face is going to freeze like that.

W e have all heard our mother, grandmother, or teachers tell us these very words. That was my grandmother’s immediate response whenever I made a face at my little sis. I had to stop and think for a moment what life would be like if my face actually did freeze with my tongue sticking out!

As I got older, I realized that my tongue has been sticking out for a long time. I also realized that things are far worse in the world than people’s faces freezing in unbecoming positions. I think that what is being pointed out is that if we engage in certain ugliness then it actually becomes a part of who we are.

Like I said, my tongue has been sticking out for most of my life. When put in certain situations, it’s inevitable to pick up parts of that situation that become part of you. When exposed to bad things; bad things are picked up. When exposed to good things; good things are picked up. This is not really rocket science. They say that in a five-year period you become who you hang around with, what you watch and what your read (I don’t know who they are so don’t ask me). What I personally know is that when you go to boot camp, spend three months around well-trained killing machines, you become a well-trained killing machine! Slightly different angle, but you get the point.

Sometimes people go to the extreme to protect themselves from ugliness or something that they see as a threat if they engage in the situation or person. An example of this is a pastor friend of mine that deliberately does not engage around Debbie Downers. Although I personally do not agree with this approach, he says that he does not want the negative to rub off on him. I know exposure to negativity is like a cancer, able to quickly spread. This is a bold thing to do when you are in a position that requires you to help the broken, lost, and hurt.

On the other hand, when you go through life like there is nothing that seems to get to you even though the local news tells you how bad it is every night at 5PM, 6PM, 7:30PM, and 10PM. Avoidance is one thing; it requires it requires an action on your part to discern what a situation is and then make a decision as to whether or not to engage. Ignorance, on the other hand, is dangerous. Knowing that you can potentially be influenced by something that is bad, but don’t know the difference, you can end up in a really tough spot. If you don’t believe me, find someone that has spent any time in a cult or legalistic church!

How do we then, protect ourselves from the world? We know that we live in a fallen world, full of ugliness, commercialism, TV shows that expose us to true human nature, divorce rates are through the roof, et cetera…I think you get the point. It seems that the bad has far outweighed the good in our lives somewhere along the line. We take advice from people that have no business giving advice, no matter how many degrees are on their wall or how many people watch their TV show. We