SecondIron's Blog

Sharpening Iron to Live Second

8 Lessons from Battle of the Five Armies

The highly anticipated third part of the Hobbit Trilogy, The Battle of the Five Armies comes out this week. This is Peter Jackson’s third installment in the story of Bilbo Baggins and his journey with his dwarfish friends to take back what is rightfully theirs. Don’t worry you can keep reading there are no spoilers, in fact this is not even going to be a review. It would be unfair to take away the fantastic “ending” of this journey. However there are some great lessons we could all learn from. Lessons Learned from the Battle of the Five Armies “Thorin. You gave a promise.” – Bilbo Baggins- the innocence of Bilbo is challenged as we are when someone goes against their word. No matter how big or small, dwarf or man, a promise is a promise. “The town is lost save the gold” – the greed of money is many times held even above that of humankind. We can look in our own lives to those business owners, churches and even in our own families. Humankind many times will worry about how much they can save rather than how many. “If more of us valued home above gold, it would be a merrier world.” – In a word where the mighty dollar represents power, it also brings pain. We forsake what is right, moral and good just to make more. If we valued the things at home, like love, family and comfort the world would be a much happier place. “If this is love, I don’t want […]

Home for the Holidays

I had the opportunity and privilege to sit down with Rick DuCharme, Founder and Executive Director of First Coast No More Homeless Pets (FCNMHP). We met for lunch at Joseph’s on Main Street. Over lasagna and cal-zones we discussed the exciting future of FCNMHP. Next weekend December 19th-21st,  FCNMHP will be hosting the final Mega Pet Adoption at the fairgrounds. This provides a one stop place for people looking to adopt a dog or cat. Many of the high risk shelters and rescue groups will be on hand to match you with your next family member. For only a 20 dollar adoption fee you can save two lives, the one you take home and the one that is saved in its place. As we close in on year’s end and people are making last-minute donations FCNMHP has a fantastic solution. With the generosity of a donor all dollars donated between now and the end of the year will be doubled. This means if you donate 25.00 it will be 50.00 or 50.00 becomes 100.00 and so on. This provides a fantastic opportunity for your dollars to go farther to save lives. FCNMHP also believes that animal owners should not be forced to decide whether to get their pet the medical care they need. They have an ongoing Angel Fund that through the generous help of its donors provides medical treatment to the homeless as well as those that otherwise would be unable to afford treatment. This program has been a great success and you can read […]

Ethan Hallmark – An Involuntary Hero

I am Second – Ethan Hallmark’s story As a Christian there are times when even we struggle for answers. It is through those times that we seek. I am Second was formed just for that purpose to provide answers and hope through real life stories. This is a recap of one such story of a small boy named Ethan Hallmark who has become an involuntary hero. A man can be destroyed but not defeated. Click To Tweet Just like any other family, four kids and yet Ethan makes it different. Rather than being a normal kid that hates school. He looks forward to it because he doesn’t get to go that often. He has become an inspiration to those around him. Ethan has symptomatic cancer, the cancer has spread throughout his body. He has tumors throughout his bones and organs that finger out throughout. He has had about 100 days of radiation to combat the cancer. At age 13 he celebrates his moms birthday as he gets radiation. He faces his life with a unrelinquished lack of fear. He has become closer to God along his journey. He became the one that prayed and he has led his friends to Christ. His friends see Ethan as a symbol that God is not dead. The pain started in his stomach, they ordered a CT scan. Ethan’s doctor was visibly shaken when he had to deliver the news to Ethan’s mom. Ethan was diagnosed with neuroblastoma, and because of his aged the odds are not in his […]