Mikel Pulins

Veterinarian, husband, dad, under the grace of God

[Matt Van Swol @mattvanswol]

In 1988 Dolly Parton pulled every 7th and 8th grader in Sevier County into a room and told them to pick a buddy.

She made them sign a contract.. if BOTH graduate, she hands you both $500. One fails, nobody gets paid.

The county dropout rate went from 35% to 6%.

She handed out the checks herself.

In 1989 she offered $500 to every kid in the county who wanted to go to the local college.

When Gatlinburg burned in 2016, she sent 900 families $1,000 a month for six months.

You've probably heard that part.

Here's the part you haven't:

The fund raised more than expected, so she showed up in May and handed every one of those families another $5,000 on top.

Then she quietly put $3 million into the recovery group that handles the years after the news trucks leave.

She built her county an entire hospital.

She played a benefit concert in 2007, Dollywood and the Stampede matched it, and LeConte Medical Center opened in 2010 with a birthing unit and a women's center in it.

In 2022 she started covering 100% of tuition, books, and fees for Dollywood employees.

Full-time, part-time, AND seasonal.

In 1991 she paid for a bald eagle sanctuary because the birds couldn't be released back into the wild, no press release.

And when Hurricane Helene came through here in Western North Carolina, she wrote a personal check for $1 million and her companies matched it.

She didn't owe North Carolina anything, but she helped us anyway.

She started the Imagination Library because her daddy couldn't read or write. Before he passed, he told her it was the most important thing she ever did.

Rest in Peace, Dolly 🇺🇸

[Anthony Bradley @drantbradley]

The missing variable here is religious participation, but we don't want to admit it. The less religious young people and progressives become, the worse their mental health predictably gets. Some parents raise their kids this way on purpose, then seem baffled by the results.

[Josh Frydman @Josh_Frydman]

Things you only see in Chicago: A group of kayakers serenading in Latvian outside @robertspizzaco_ on a Monday

[Mikel Pulins @mpulins]

@birdchadlouis This!

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

Have you ever had someone come to you for advice and then do the exact opposite of what you told them?

What’s going on there?

Usually, they were not really looking for advice. They simply craved affirmation. They had already decided what they wanted to do and simply wanted you to bless the decision so they'd feel better about it.

Something very similar happens near the end of Jeremiah, except it is even worse.

The people approach Jeremiah and say, “Pray to the Lord for us. Whatever he tells us to do, we will do it, whether it is good or bad” (Jer. 42:5-6).

Jeremiah basically says, “Are you sure about that?” And they insist they are.

So Jeremiah prays. God gives him an answer. Then Jeremiah returns with the word of the Lord:

Do not go down to Egypt. Stay in the land. Trust me. I will protect you (Jer. 42:10-12).

And how do the people respond? Predictably. They say, “You are telling a lie. The Lord our God did not send you” (Jer. 43:2).

Is that not a perfect example of the imperfect, rebellious human heart?

Deep down, we do not want God’s will. We want our will done. Now. Always.

We want heaven to rubber-stamp our plans, to give divine approval for plans we already made.

That is why Jesus teaches us to pray to our Father, “Thy will be done” (Matt. 6:10). Most of the time, our will and God’s will are not aligned. We want what we want, based on our limited human perspective. God wants what is best for us, based on his unlimited divine perspective.

So we pray:

Not what I want, Lord, but what you want.
Not what I think is best, but what you know is best.
Not my will, but Thy will be done.

Send your Holy Spirit to break my stubborn and rebellious heart and reshape it into one that trusts you, obeys you, and follows where you lead, whether it is painful or pleasant.

Lead me, Lord, in the path that you know is best.
____
We read Jeremiah 42 today in Bible in One Year. Join us at https://t.co/XxNvEtNH7e

[SonofLiberty357 @SonofLiberty357]

@elonmusk

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

Good Friday

That head, which angels with ceaseless praise adorn,
Is pierced with crowded thorns.

That face, which our God with grace and beauty lit,
Is marred by sinners’ spit.

Those eyes, outshining the sun’s most piercing light,
Are dull as sable night.

Those ears, accustomed to praise from heaven’s host,
Must hear his haters boast.

That mouth, whose wisdom the wisest could enthrall,
Tastes vinegar and gall.

Those feet, whose footstool is this terrestrial sphere,
To bloody wood adhere.

Those hands, which stretched out the heavens like a tent,
By spikes in twain are rent.

That tongue, uninjured, shall cry from that cursed tree,
A prayer of love for me.

[Axios @axios]

Greenhouse gas emissions will keep falling despite Trump's climate rollback https://t.co/ykwUZzAFmW

[Mikel Pulins @mpulins]

@Dadsaysjokes True story today: Took my daughter to a dermatologist today. Wife asked me if I had a positive impression with the doctor. I answered that I certainly did, but I had to admit that I had no skin in the game.

[Melissa Tate @TheRightMelissa]

@marcorubio For all the folks wringing their hands in fake moral outrage over Pres. Trump’s action on Maduro, you have ZERO understanding of the geopolitical significance this action for not just Venezuela but for Western Civilization..let this Venezuelan educate u 👇🏾

[Mikel Pulins @mpulins]

New year, new you, #Venezuela .

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

Riches to Rags Christmas - Micah 7. Dive into the Bible in One year series at https://t.co/Yrg5F0E7Fx for the reading guide and to catch up on previous posts. #BibleinOneYear #Biblestudy

[Mikel Pulins @mpulins]

@nixon_kath99947 I live in the Chicago burbs. Ordered a gift from my wife from Etsy on November 28, shipped USPS on Dec 2, hit Indianapolis, vanished for a week, and is now in New Jersey. Pair of jeans from Macy's just went from Chicago to Minneapolis. I get you

[Chad Bird @birdchadlouis]

What we consider to be failures are often God's successes in disguise.

Think of the two Emmaus disciples, who did not know their traveling companion was the resurrected Jesus. They told him, "We were hoping [Jesus] was going to redeem Israel," (Luke 24:21).

Oh, the irony! To them, the death of Jesus was the death of their hopes. His mission, from their perspective, had turned out to be an embarrassing, faith-crushing failure. Nothing had gone according to their plans and hopes.

How wrong they were. And how wrong we so often are.

What they grieved over as failure was in reality the success they had desired. He did redeem Israel in the very death they were now lamenting.

What they thought was the end of hope was precisely the beginning of it.

We all have our "hopes" for God. What we want him to do in our lives and in the lives of others. We were hoping he'd redeem us from a bad year, hoping he had grand plans for us, hoping he'd work some miracle to save our relationships or dream or job. And, in the end, it doesn't happen the way we had planned.

If we know anything about God, however, it's that his version of success often looks like our version of failure.

He works in upside-down, backward ways. We might never know the exact reasons why our "hopes" didn't work out the way we had planned, but we do know this: in our failures, God is at work to empty us that he might fill us with Christ, kill us to make us alive in him, strip away our self-made identities to unite us more fully with our Lord.

In that, his good and gracious will is always done.

[Mikel Pulins @mpulins]

@edstetzer They don't have to dribble the baseball while running with it.

[Xi Van Fleet @XVanFleet]

This is what always happens in the Socialist/Communist “paradise”: the idea is so “wonderful” that it can only be imposed through coercion and force. To keep the “paradise” pure, those with the wrong identities or the wrong thoughts must be silenced or eliminated—at the cost of more than 100 million lives. I lived through one such dystopia under Mao.

Today, the Communist virus has taken root in America under a new disguise—Wokeism and DEI. And just like before, voices like Charlie Kirk who dare to dissent must be destroyed, all in the name of “defending democracy.”

I know exactly where this road leads. We must stop America from going down the same path.

[Isaiah L. Carter 🇺🇸 @IsaiahLCarter]

My God.

[Steve Guest @SteveGuest]

Climate insanity: "A new four-lane highway cutting through tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest is being built for the COP30 climate summit..."

So let me get this straight: The climate cult is literally paving paradise, destroying nature all to build a highway so people can go to a climate change conference. https://t.co/8Qvqdvz94Q

[Mikel Pulins @mpulins]

Getting educated with 20,000 of my closest friends at the #VMX2025 Conference in Orlando, and I found six of my old classmates from the U of I class of '99!

[Mikel Pulins @mpulins]

@CFBONFOX @ZakhariFranklin @IlliniFootball That's an NFL move there