America's past time

About half the folks I come across hate baseball.

A few years ago, I attended an Arizona Diamondbacks game in their outstanding ballpark. I don't even remember who they played. It didn't matter. A sweet ballpark and a ballgame are unbeatable.

My German friend hated it. B-O-R-I-N-G! I just smiled.

As we approach the homestretch for the 2008 season, my Twins cannot get around the Chicago White Sox. A Sox fan will cry that they can't shake the tenacious Twins off their tail. Touche. If you take a look at the standings, after 136 games, the Twins have won a mere 16 more games than they have lost! The best teams in all of baseball, after 130+ games, have won 30 more than they lost, but that means they lose more than once every three times they play.

Defeat is part of baseball. It's a significant part of baseball especially when you consider the best hitters make an out two out of every three times they come to the plate. They fail 66% of the time!

Herein lies one of the beauties of the game. It's a long season. One hundred and sixty-two games. Hundreds of at bats. Lots of failure. How do you handle that failure? Who will get that one extra hit that powers his team to win that one extra game that at the end of September will kick them into the playoffs.

You may go 0-for-24. Your team might be in the heart of a seven-game losing streak within a fifteen-game roadtrip. But that next game, that next hit might make all the difference.

Do we quit? Do we throw in the towel?

Naw. Get on the bus, get on the plane because we get to go to another park. By God's good grace, I've got another chance to get in the batter's box and take my swings.

Maybe this time...

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(A point of note: To emphasize how "slightly better than average" can equal success in baseball, the Arizona D-backs are on top of their division with a whopping three (3) more wins than they have losses out of 135 games. Who wants it bad enough?)

QotD: Sons

Sometimes your progeny surprise. I have one (#2) who's bucking for Yogi Berra.

• "Life isn't fair. But take heart, sometimes it'll be not fair in your favor."


• "Sometime people change, sometimes they don't. Its really up to them."


• "If you're gonna cough up water, let it come out your mouth. Its better than the alternative."


• "Don't expect to learn about our Government in an American Government class; and know that taking a flag football class doesn't necessarily mean you'll be playing any flag football."

Sage insights from an 18-year old

(shamelessly lifted from his Facebook page)

Just another day: Gustav

Photo from Intellicast.com

• Gustav: Coming around the clubhouse turn and entering the homestretch is Gustav, the next in a series of devastating hurricanes to cross the Gulf of Mexico and smash into New Orleans. And like a thoroughbred hungry for the finish line, it appears that Gustav is only going to get stronger and more fierce the closer to land it gets.
• Hanna: If Gustav wasn't enough, Hanna sits 1000 miles due east making the duo look like a demonic barbell. At least there is no tornadic activity forecast for the plains today.
• Hurricane Vladimir: Georgia and Russia are still in the news. Rather than recognizing South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent states, the Kremlin has decided to absorb them into Mother Russia. Out of the goodness of their heart. Georgia has cut ties with the bear. What's left of it.
• Iran/Israel: They both start with "I" but that's where their similarities end. News stories note that Israel has determined not to let Iran go nuclear. No matter the cost. Iran's response? No surprise, really. "We'll kick of WWIII." Kumbaya.
• Rock and Roll: FoxNews is reporting another 6.1 earthquake in China where the 7.2 brought devastation earlier this year. I went to the US Geological Service's web-site and found that China has had two other earthquakes on top of the one today that topped 6.0. Almost seems like the earth is trying to tell us something. Anybody speak seismonese?
• Bananas: I read this week where former vice-presidential candidate John Edwards' fee for speaking has been raised to $65,000 per engagement. Am I missing something? Wasn't he just exposed as an adulterous fraud and liar? Astonishing to think how close he came to the White House.
• Kickoff: The NFL season starts this next week. My blogging may tail off a bit for the next six months... Go Vikings!!
  

Sarah Palin

Only a week ago I wondered whether the liberal/liberal ticket of Obama/Biden would cause McCain, a moderate conservative if ever there was one, to vacillate more toward the left with the selection of a running mate or if he would stand upon a firm conservative foundation.

Wonder no longer. John McCain hammered a Josh Hamilton-sized homerun by selecting Alaskan governor, Sarah Palin, as his choice for vice president.

She is everything McCain is not.

• She is steadfastly, fiscally conservative.
• She is steadfastly, morally conservative.
• She is NOT a Washington insider.
• She's young.
• And, in case your ocularly challenged, she's a lassie.

While many will argue that her youth weighs against her, no moreso than Barack Obama's youth weighs against him. First of all, both Obama and Palin meet the age requirements for the job. Second, I prefer to look at qualifications and qualities vice age. That's why McCain's age should not count against him. That's why it didn't count against Reagan. Third, only one of the "youngsters" is running for President, and it's not Palin.

I suspect she'll handle Biden in their debate like David handled his bear, his lion, and his giant. Don't sell the petite outdoorslady from Alaska short. Names like Thatcher and Meir come to mind.

Dudes III

Again, lassies, this is for your laddies. Your welcome to continue, but it's intended for men.

Ironic how when God wants to teach a lesson, the same point gets hammered home again...and again...and again. Consider it God's version of boldface, underlining, and highlighting all at the same time. It's a sweet thing that He loves us that much to go to such lengths.

I hadn't intended on writing about this again, but I stumbled upon a superb and simple article from Mike Adams (read here). It's title: "Real Men Don't Do Porn."

What's the big deal? I contend pornography is the single greatest sin in the church today among men. Stats bear that out. I contend it is the greatest destroyer of marriages. It leads to conflict. It brings about financial turmoil. It cripples your ministry. It stains your children. It dishonors your wife. It's an affront to and rebellion toward Almighty God. It is sin.

But there is hope. There is healing. There is forgiveness. There is restoration. But they come through repentance. Turning. Fleeing. Agreeing with God.

I pray that if you need a Nathan in your life, that God would provide a man to get in your chili and say, "You are in sin." Only when confronted with his sin did David repent. Yes, the consequences played out for the rest of his life. What's done cannot be undone. But his shattered relationship with God found renewal.

"Against You, You only, have I sinned, and done this evil in Your sight."

Psalm 51:4

Man up and run away from it, NEVER to return. Never!

Just another day: The Beijing version

The Olympics concluded. Maybe now I can get something done.

• No, they didn't win the most medals, but the Chinese shwacked everyone when it came to gold medals (51 to 36 for the next nearest (us)).


• Oops? Did anyone else hear Chris Collinsworth during the closing ceremony state that the national anthem that moved him the most during the two weeks of the Olympiad was China's? Even in context, I recoiled.


• Architecture. Lots of folks lauding the Chinese for the "Bird's Nest" and the "Water Cube." Their communications building is something, too. Too bad nobody (few) took the time to point out how their architecture and infrastructure fared when struck by an earthquake. The Olympic structures were meant to be beheld by the world distracting the eyes from what was going on behind the curtain.


• Fay. The remnants of the beast are now drenching the lower Mississippi River valley. Good riddance. Now can someone explain to me the twisters in Colorado in August? (not Fay at right)
  


• Global warming. Minnesota and Wisconsin should receive frost tonight.


• Georgia. Anybody heard anything from Jaw-jah? Anyone? Bueller? Cricket...cricket...


• Left. With the addition to Joe Biden to his ticket, Barack Obama can quit with the "bridge-builder," "common-ground" rhetoric. Neither one has a moderate corpuscle in their body. When I heard that Al Gore was being attached to Clinton's campaign, I had at least seen some conservative hope from he and Tipper and their loathing of our culture's rot. That was before he sold his soul to the enviro-friendly devil. With the gauntlet thrown (with the force of a Nolan Ryan fastball), will McCain vacillate to the center or will he hold to principle? Stay tuned...


• Fear of flying. Ten dead in a plane crash in Guatemala. 68 dead in a plane crash in Kyrgyzstan. 154 dead in the takeoff crash in Madrid, Spain. I think I'll pay the $3.50 per gallon.


• The bottom of the barrel. Madonna's back on tour.


• Deeper still. Bill Maher, "comedian," has produced a movie titled "Religulous" (you know, like "ridiculous") where he monologues on the horrifying effect religion has on society, culture, politics, etc. For those of you who have never heard the man, he makes George Carlin seem destined for sainthood. Paul got turned around. Pray for Bill.

Ending on the positive side of sin (?!?), my pastor gave a great message on repentance from Matthew 5:4. You can listen to it here ("SotM: Blessed for Mourning??"). It'll run you about 45 minutes.

Obama-Biden: By their friends

Perhaps the clearest critique regarding the Obama-Biden ticket came from a source that lauded the selection of Senator Joseph Biden as Senator Obama's running mate.

The National Abortion Right's Action League came out with strong support for Biden. NARAL's president Nancy Keenan offered these musings (here):

"Sen. Biden has consistently expressed support for a woman's right to choose. While we have not agreed with him on every vote, we have a longstanding relationship with Sen. Biden that is open, positive, and constructive, and we are confident this will continue in a new administration under Sen. Obama's pro-choice leadership.

"Most notably, Sen. Biden has a strong record of opposing judicial nominees with hostile anti-choice records. He voted against George W. Bush's two anti-choice nominees to the U.S. Supreme Court, John Roberts and Samuel Alito, and he opposed anti-choice Justice Clarence Thomas' nomination to the Court as well as multiple anti-choice nominees to lower federal courts."

That pretty much sums up the ticket.

Pastors and politics: National confusion

I love reading. I love reading conservative thought. The usual well from which I drink, apart from the ultimate source of radical thought, the Bible, is Townhall.com. Townhall is a repository for conservative columns from around America. Some of the columns read like a symphony. Some cut like a surgeons laser. Some sour the gut.

Wednesday, a tidal wave of nausea hit me.

Kathleen Parker wrote a piece (linked here in its entirety) railing upon Rick Warren for querying the presidential hopefuls about their worldview, about their religion, about their faith in Christ.

"But does it not seem just a little bit odd to have McCain and Obama chatting individually with a preacher in a public forum about their positions on evil and their relationship with Jesus Christ?"

A reader offered these comments in exultant agreement:

"Ms. Parker is absolutely correct in her statements. A person's religious preferences should be immaterial to the office of the President of the United States (or any other political or public office) and the performance of the duties of that office. Go back and reread the First Amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion.""

Folks, both Ms. Parker and this commentator are daft. And her commentator seems to think that Pastor Warren is now a member of Congress and trying to establish some law about religion (a typical problem for folks with First Amendment issues). Here's what the Constitution does say about a religious determinant for public office:

"...no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the United States." (Article VI)

That's it. The intent of our Founders was to insure that the government itself would impose no restriction. In other words, you didn't have to be a Presbyterian or a Puritan to be president. You didn't have to swear allegiance to the Church of England or the Church of Christ.

Where Ms. Parker and her advocate have skidded into the ditch is in their assertion that the individual voters should not care about a candidate's religious foundation. Ludicrous! The Constitution restricts the government, not its citizens!

I can think of no clearer indicator for a person's position on a particular issue than their conviction about God and His Word. Individual voters have every right to understand from what material the candidate will be deciding the weighty matters of national policy. And who better to get those questions answered than a pastor, especially a pastor who has the respect and friendship of both candidates?

I wonder if Ms. Parker and her pal have any idea the number of pastors and Bible society members and officers who signed the Declaration of Independence? I'm glad that they, like Warren, got involved in our civil discourse.

Sport?

Both dictionary.com and the American Heritage Dictionary suggest two key aspects when defining sport. One, physical exertion. The other, abiding by a set of rules.

So as I sit (note the verb) watching the Olympics, I pondered the oddity of sport. Especially Olympic sport.

You can break them into two categories: the objective and the subjective.

The objective sports are easy. The strongest, fastest, longest, highest, farthest, or most points wins. No problemo. Clear the bar in your allotted tries and you win. Knock the bar off? Loser. Touch the wall first, even if by .01 second (!?!), gold medal. Half a fingertip behind at 30 mph? Silver (a classy way to say you didn't win).

I watched the women's marathon Saturday (from the sofa). Awesome. Especially considering this 38 year old Romanian finished her 26.4 mile race in a wee bit more than 30 minutes more than it takes me to finish my 12.4 mile canyon run every year. That's nearly twice as fast twice as far. Ouch. But there was no doubt about who won. She completed her lap in the "Bird's Nest" as her nearest competitors had entered the arena.

Which segues into the blur that exists within the subjective sports. What makes a sport "subjective"? The line of "impartial" judges from "impartial" nations who likely have as much experience on the ten-meter platform as I do determining the quality of the dive, vault, dismount, sow-cow or jab. Who wins? Does performance matter. Yes, yes, without qualification, yes!

But...

What if the judging isn't as impartial as we'd like to hope? What if it's just bad? Inconsistent? Who's best? Is beauty in the eye of the beholder? Do the punches connect for one boxer but not the other? The wacky nature of subjective sport was as obvious as an Ali knockout in women's gymnastics, especially regarding Nastia Liukin's silver medal. I've read about why she got second place though she had the same score as the gold-medal winner (you can read it here), but I did not understand the judges gymnastics. I guess that makes me uniquely qualified to subjectively critique their subjectivity.

Here's the deal: I love them both, objective and subjective! These folks are monsters. Michael Phelps and his 24-pack abs. Sixteen year old pixies doing things I could only do if I were computer-generated. Usain Bolt blasting the 100m record to pieces while relaxing during the final 30m. The men's gymnasts have muscles overlapping muscles to do the surreal things they do on the rings. As a former hockey player, I've done some of the things I've seen from figure skaters but usually it occurred after I was clocked by an opposing defenseman. Then I usually ended on my can and not my blades. And I'm even a sucker for curling and badminton, too (pseudosports? Chess, anyone?).

I just wish there was someway to objectively quantify the subjective sports.

Kill all the lawyers.

Dudes II

Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. (1 Corinthians 10:12)

That verse pounded in my ears today. Like a migraine. Like a mosquito in the middle of the night. When it seemed I would finally get myself lost in my work, the timpani of truth began to snare in my mind once again.

I know a man who had fallen. Oh, not in the sticky darkness of sin, but he had fallen physically. That metaphor for spiritual failure took on a clarity I had not seen before, and in light of John Edwards and King David, the message of the Lord blistered my heart.

I had always thought of blatant arrogance when considering this verse. This dealt with the prima donnas. In my mind, I had drawn a stark line between the cocky and the confident. Misplaced confidence bit me like a well-hid rattler.

The man who walks with God will not plan to off-ramp into sin. In fact, he will chart the course. He will ensure that his vehicle is ready for the journey. He will have identified the potential problems along the way and either plotted the route to steer clear or taken precautions against proximity to pitfalls. He makes his plans and understands that the Lord will guide the steps.

What begins to creep in over time is a confidence in those plans, a confidence in those abilities. Perhaps he still holds a great awareness for the problem areas, but he has gone around them before, his precautions have kept him secure.

Then a circumstance dictates a pathway precipitously close to the precipice, a situation necessitates a setting aside the precaution...

...Let he who thinks he stands...beware!

The unseen. The unforeseen. After the fall, the sobriety of the situation melts away the confidence like the sun burns off the dewy fog.

No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man; but God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. (1 Corinthians 10:13)

So do you venture out on the dark, rain-slicked morning or do you step back and consider that perhaps the journey is not required that morning. Or perhaps you have not considered that God has provided you a way out, an easy route that completely neuters the threat.

I know a man that praises God that he can learn lessons from his fall for it could have easily cost him his life (1 Peter 5:8). May the God of all wisdom translate a physical mishap into an eternal lesson.

Dudes

I took a swing at John Edwards in a blog-post the other day. It was easy. While I think the folks on Mythbusters might suggest that shooting fish in a barrel is no easy feat, that's what came to mind as I considered the Senator's meteoric crash.

Such digs end up making me feel like the fly-cloaked jackal that scrounges for any magotty kill his attuned schnoz might pick up. That kill could have been me.

Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. (1 Peter 5:8)

And so I have escaped into the brush, knowing that the lion has had his fill but will be hungry again...and soon.

For the ladies whose eyes pound across these lines, what follows is for your man. You're welcome to read on as it might give you a glimpse into the inner workings of us men and the jackals we are prone to be, but this is intended for him.

As I tell my kids, you can always serve as a bad example. While I'd prefer to not make the mistakes, I'll not hide them before my sons and daughters for they might just learn from my error and steer themselves clear in the future. John Edwards has most recently served us all as a bad example.

And but for the grace of God, I would be the carcass that the press and the bloggers had picked clean. Or maybe it would have been you.

Why do you think God included the details about David and Bathsheba? The Lord could have used the shorthand that He used in other places. He could have said, "David did wickedly when his troops were out at war and brought the judgment of God upon his household." Nope, God gave us details that would make President Clinton empathetic.

And what about the father who seems stuck in the proverbial run in Proverbs who cried out to his son over and over, warning him about the lethality sexual sin?

• Proverbs 2:16-19
• Proverbs 5
• Proverbs 6:20-29
• Proverbs 7

The man starts out his advice to his son contrasting wisdom and folly and quickly segues into the epic destruction of the one who dallies with the debs.

Why David's details? Why these warnings? Because I AM PRONE.

Brother, YOU ARE PRONE.

Repetition is the Jewish exclamation point. Paul, dude that he was, knowing that he was prone, and knowing that God wickered all men similarly, wrote the same thing to three different audiences.

• "Flee sexual immorality. Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body." (1 Corinthians 6:18...6:12-20 is all spot on...to a church with major sexual problems)
• "Flee also youthful lusts; but pursue righteousness, faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart." (2 Timothy 2:22 - particular poignant knowing that this was Paul's final letter to the young pastor)
• "For this is the will of God, your sanctification: that you should abstain from sexual immorality..." (1 Thessalonians 4:3...4:1-8 is all superb on this topic...to a church in the flower of its spiritual youth and planted amidst the hedonism of ancient Greece.)

Run away! Elsewhere, Paul encourages folks to stand firm in resistance against the devil (Ephesians 6:10-14), but NOT when it comes to this issue. Sexual temptation (movies, magazines, memories, or the real thing) will wipe us out before we even realize we needed a defense.

Please note the severity of Christ's example

John Edwards, a beautiful wife. David, King of Israel, lots of beautiful wives. "Thou shalt not commit adultery." Both ensnared like the laddies in Proverbs. They became zombies, drugged by the fatal allure of sexual opportunity.

How fast did it happen to David? One night. Was David looking for it? Doesn't sound like it.

His sin of the flesh took him deeper into deceit and corruption. And so for the former presidential hopeful. John Edwards betrayed his wife at her deepest time of need and lied to our nation.

But for the grace of God...

Men, we are the husbands of one wife. One. No other. There are millions who will catch your eye, but yours must be fixated upon your bride alone. Millions will find you or what you do compelling. The only opinion that needs to shiver your spine is your brides.

Married or unmarried, the onus is upon us to keep the marriage bed pure. Keep it pure for your bride or your future bride. Protect the hearts of our sisters in Christ and especially the hearts of those lassies who do not know Jesus as Savior. The greatest gift we can give to men we will likely never meet is to honor, respect, and protect these women who are their daughters or who are their sisters or who one day may be their bride.

We must ignore the flirtatious or lingering look we receive, and we must NEVER give it. If one comes your way, run away! Beware the touch, the look, or the comment that makes your heart's RPM kick it up a notch. Run away!

So, God includes the example of David as the classic bad example. God, through the media, has given us a fresher bad example in John Edwards. Will we never learn?

But for the grace of God...and snug up your running shoes.

A game of inches

Michael Phelps, left, touching the wall. Milorad Cavic, right, still reaching.
(Photo by Sports Illustrated)

"Never, never, never give up!"

Winston Churchill during the Battle of Britain

If you ever thought, "There's just no way..."

If you ever felt, "It's not worth the effort..."

If the muscles in your body cried, "We're going to explode..."

If your brain has concrete argumentation for why you will not win...

Remember Michael Phelps' final lunge during the 100 meter Butterfly during the 2008 Olympics. Or remember the body length lead that Jason Lezak overcame to during the 4x100 meter Freestyle Relay.

It's worth gold!

Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.

1 Corinthians 9:25-27

Just another day: The Olympic version

Michael Phelps swims for his 6th gold tonight. I have a silver filling. Some interesting tidbits you've likely heard:

• The man ingests 12,000 calories a day! An online calculator suggests that a man of my age and stature should ingest 2800.
• His swimming suit costs $550. Seems to be working well. He could stand to get some better goggles.

All is not light and Olympic around the world. Sorry. The Middle East remains a tinder box and it seems that many folks are doing everything in their power to strike the match. Things are weird all the way around.

• Georgia. The steel of Russian armor continues to move within Georgia's borders.


• Pakistan. On the easter fringe of what most would consider the Middle East, one of the most volatile nations is about to lose its American-friendly president. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf is about to step down rather than face impeachment. Standby for the rise of Islamic radicalism within.


• Poland. Even those who aren't geography majors know that Poland isn't in the Middle East, but with the United States' support for Georgia festering like a thorn in the Bear's claw, the former Soviet protectorate's acceptance of an American missile defense shield was a sledgehammer to the snout. Vlad's vexed.

The Cold War is ginning up once again.

To end with an ironic note (and not to belabor the Edwards' debacle, but...)

• The Scoop. Can you name the news outlet that broke the ghastly news of John Edwards' grotesque hypocrisy, adultery, deceit, arrogance, etc? Not the Times of either coast. Neither of Washington's papers. Neither O (O'Reilly or Olbermann) nor their network. Enquiring minds want to know! You guessed it, the National Enquirer. And still most news outlets run it as a non-story perpetrated by puritanical McCain pundits.

QotD: The free market

"We don't need laws against discrimination. We need a free, competitive marketplace. Competition is better at punishing sexists, racists and "ageists" than clumsy laws. If a boss discriminated against, say, women, he would be demolished by a competitor who obtains better workers by hiring the women the first boss turned away. If an entire group of bosses turned women away, then men's wages would be bid up over women's, and a new competitor would defeat the discriminators by hiring only women."

John Stossel, "Whose business is it anyway?"

Who's on first? A question of trusting the news

We judge the credibility of what we hear based upon how what we hear corresponds with the reality around us and based upon the tested truthfulness of the herald. If you are unfamiliar with the person, you will be more skeptical of their story.

So it goes with the news. Truthfulness does not generally prove itself the moment a story breaks. Over time as we glean more and more about the event, we learn whether or not the particular media component has handled has handled it in an honest and unbiased manner. That's a good reason to try and collect your ideas about what's going on in the world from a number of typically reputable sources.

When the crisis in Georgia broke, I didn't know to whom I should listen or who would paint the clearest canvas? Did Georgia provoke Russia's wrath? Were horrors against humanity being perpetrated against the South Ossetians?

The fog lifted when I read Pravda and other Russian news outlets accuse the New York Times and the LA Times of being tools of Western propaganda. An example from Pravda today:

"The opinion piece in the online version of the Los Angeles Times (2008.08.12) is a clear and classic example of the type of material western readers are being bombarded with in what appears to be an orchestrated campaign of disinformation to shape public opinion against Russia."

After I'd picked myself off the floor and wiped the remnant tears of one of the best laughs I have had all summer, my continued reading of the neo-Soviet opinion led me to believe they were completely serious.

Over time, I have come to learn that the Times of either coast, LA or NY, paints in a brush that richly favors liberal ideology, socialist even. Statistical analysis bears that out. So when the Stalinists began asserting that their greatest allies in the west were churning out right-wing-pro-West propaganda, it was like trying to deny the cookie heist while chomping down the evidence.

Go Georgia!

The brink

(**Sweeping generality warning**) Assassination is never a good thing. It makes for interesting cinema, but in real life, it's glorified murder perpetrated by a) thugs or b) cowards, sometimes both. When the Archduke Ferdinand of Austria-Hungary was assassinated on June 28, 1914, I suspect most Americans wondered, "Who?"

Likewise, when the scrawny leader of Germany started stretching his arms around a sliver of ground called Sudetenland in 1938, most folks between Bangor and Burbank shrugged, "So?"

Ah, the early machinations of global chaos. It's kind of like that pain and tingling in the left arm. Discomfort. A little annoying. Then--click--out go the lights. What happened?

For those of you who regularly scan these ramblings, you've likely plussed yourself up on where Georgia is. Frankly, a week ago, had you spun a globe in front of me, it's unlikely that my finger would have landed within 1000 miles of where I believed the former Soviet Socialist Republic to be. Now I know.

Today's news indicates that the country is split in two, the Russo-friendly territories of Abkhazia and South Ossetia within the protective, iron grasp of Vladimir Putin and the southern half of the country (oddly South Ossetia is in northern Georgia. North Ossetia is in Russia) is ducking for cover.

"Who? So?"

I've got to say, the situation gives me a gnarly foreboding. Here's why:

1. Road Block. That wedge of land, slightly larger than West Virginia serves as a western friendly buffer between the Russian Bear and the Middle East. Should Russian have designs toward any country in the Southwest Asia, only the desolate mass of western Turkey stands between it Iraq, Syria (Russian ally), Iran (Russian ally), and Israel (not so much a Russian ally).

2. Timing is everything. Does it strike anyone else as odd that this boil ruptured during the opening ceremonies of the Olympics? Is the world sufficiently distracted? How's the chai?

3. Who's the Boss? It's not Tony Danza. It doesn't look like it's the recently elected president of Russia, Dmitri Medvedev, either. Seems the old president, the new "prime minister," Vladimir Putin's calling the shots on Russia's southern border.

4. Playing "Chicken." Somebody's got to flinch. If not, the crash (clash?) will hospitalize many at best and most likely kill the participants. Georgia is an ally of the West, an ally of the United States. Russia's suggesting this conflict has been provoked by the White House (Obama fodder? WMD revisited?). Putin's already peeved that America transported Georgian troops out of Iraq and back to Tblisi to support their homeland. So here's the Scylla and Charybdis we find ourselves between. If we flinch, we let Russia have its way in Georgia, and we essentially cede all of the former Soviet states back to the Bear's paws. America will show itself too weakened to stand against its Cold War foe. If we hold the wheel steady and we intervene on behalf of Georgia, the bounds of escalation are unimaginable.

And so, Georgia burns and Vlad fiddles. Somebody pass the Tums.

Photo by Reuters

Larry King

I distinctly remember sitting in the theater with my sons when, near the climax of the film, I saw with lucid eyes where "Signs" was going. I almost stood in my seat and cheered.

Recently my pastor used as an analogy in one of his sermons the artform of a decade ago titled "Magic-Eye." You remember? The colors looked like something out of the 60's and if you did something goofy with your eyes--*poof*--an image would miraculously appear. I remember staring at a couple of those things at a kiosk in the mall. When you don't get it, you just don't get it. I walked away thinking surely those things were a product of the 60's and some manner of 60's paraphernalia was required to "see" it. Then some sadist put the things in the comics section of the Sunday paper. In mockery I followed the directions when--*poof*--I saw the image! I almost stood in my seat and cheered.

Not getting it is frustrating especially when those around you see it so clearly and understand so plainly. There are those who will walk away from the kiosk never to return thinking the folks are utterly daft. Then there are those, frustrated as they may be who will stand there for hours trying to "see." And when they walk away at the end of the night, they don't curse those who can see or think that they are loons, but they ache to be able to catch the mystery, too.

Larry King aches to understand the mystery.

This last week, King had Steven Curtis Chapman and his family on his show to discuss the tragedy of death of their daughter and sister, Maria. Chapman's son, Will, through no fault of his own, ran over his sister as she bolted in front of his SUV. The Chapman's chose three outlets through which to share how God's grace and the hope of Jesus Christ have sustained them through this horror. Larry King's show was one of those outlets.

Throughout the telecast, you could see King was utterly befuddled. "Aren't you angry?" "Are you angry at Will?" "Are you angry at God?" "Did you lose your faith?" "Did you question your faith?" And with each answer that revealed the deep peace they had in God, the deep grief they had over the loss of their child, and the deep knowledge they all had that one day, they would see Maria again, King grew more perplexed.

He wasn't frustrated. It wasn't like he was going to pounce upon them for lost faith or stewing anger. Such emotion would have brought him peace because such emotion would be normal. It would have somehow justified the interview to him. But peace, joy and hope amidst overwhelming grief can only be a God thing, and King recognizing that seemed to deflate, "I just don't get it."

This is nothing new for Larry King. He has all manner and all flavor of religious individual on his show from Deepak Chopra to Joel Osteen to John MacArthur to Franklin Graham. The man keeps staring at the Magic-Eye and wants desperately to see the picture. Every angle, every distance, every lighting. I just don't get it.

The day after, Larry King recorded an "About Last Night" segment (watch it here. It's only a minute long), where he discusses the impact of the previous evening. He confesses, "I wish I had that," when discussing their faith, but he miscategorizes it as "blind faith."

God never called anyone to have blind faith. The faith God calls man to have is substantial and that substance is in the God who has proven Himself, has proven His love over and over to His beloved creatures. The Bible teems with testimony about the God who is there, who has spoken, and longs for the restoration of His lost creatures.

Simply, we have rebelled. "We all... have gone astray. Each of us has turned to his own way" (Isaiah 53:6a). "There is none righteous; no not one" (Psalm 14:1). Unable to repair the holiness that God demands those who approach Him (Exodus 3:5, Habakkuk 1:13), God provided the fix. He Himself, bore the punishment to satisfy His justice (Isaiah 53:6b). "While we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (Romans 5:8). We couldn't get good enough to get to God; the chasm was too vast. God spanned the chasm with the execution of His Son, with the cross of Christ.

Jesus Christ. The mystery. Paul makes plain that this is foolishness to the sophisticate and a stumbling block to the Jew (1 Corinthians 1:23). "I just don't get it."

Please pray for Mr. King and those you know who don't know, those who are utterly stumped by this puzzle, but truly ache to know the truth. Pray that the seed of what was sown by the Chapman's, by MacArthur, by Graham, would take root in his life. Pray that the picture would one day come clear, and that he, too, might stand in his seat and cheer.

Georgia on my mind

Kumbaya...

We are the world...

I love you, you love me...

I'd like to teach the world to sing...

Yes, indeed, the Olympics are kicking off again. If it's Tuesday, this must be Belgium.

During the opening ceremonies Beijing's Olympics, NBC had an interesting shot of President Bush leaning back and chatting with Czar Vladimir Putin of Russia who was sitting just behind him and to his right. Do presidents and emperors just chat?

It seemed odd to me that Mr. Putin would be sharing a quiet evening at the Olympiad while his nation's fighter jets were waylaying Georgia, a territory that was formerly a Soviet Socialist Republic. Tanks and MiGs are not intended to win friends but to influence people. And Mr. Putin sips his chai.

When we think Georgia, we think peaches, the Braves, and the Masters. When Mr. Putin thinks Georgia, he thinks buffer zone and access to the Middle East. Georgia (not ours) sits just the east of the Black Sea with Russia to the north and Turkey to the south. What else is within 100 miles? Iran. Hmmm...

Georgia, Georgia
No peace, no peace I find
Just this old, sweet song
Keeps Georgia on my mind.

Ray Charles

Shoulda, woulda, coulda

I have a past not many know about...just like you. I don't mean to be lurid. Nor do I mean to pique your curiosity (please, forgive me).

As I look across the 45 miraculous years God has given me, I rue much. Inky blots nearly cover my life before I came to know Jesus Christ as my Lord. That should surprise no one. The marks that dot my life after I submitted to my God, those are the ones that would slacken the jaw. I can erase none of them.

When those events bubble to the surface, Satan's minions seem to pluck them out of the goo and hold them to the light to indict me as an utter failure as a Christ-follower. "You LOSE! You stole fizzy lifting drink! Good day, sir!"

Thankfully, Jesus leans over and whispers, "Ignore them. If anyone is in me, he is a new creation. The old is gone; the new is come."

What then am I to do with this unequivocal piece of evidence the enemy holds against me?

"Now I rejoice, not that you were made sorry, but that your sorrow led to repentance. For you were made sorry in a godly manner, that you might suffer loss from us in nothing. For godly sorrow produces repentance leading to salvation, not to be regretted..." (2 Corinthians 7:9-10b)

Where I have erred in the past, God calls me not to flagellate myself. He doesn't ask that I crack my noggin against the granite. He calls me to repent. Turn around and my child; don't do so damaging a thing to yourself and against Me again. As He told one young lady, "Neither do I condemn you. Go and sin no more."

Satan would rather have me focus on the slime-covered indictment. The second half of 2 Corinthians 7:10 says, "...but the sorrow of the world produces death." The self-regret, the self-focus, the penance mindset that the accuser cultivates in us brings death and destruction (no surprise).

I remember very early in my career having received an unsatisfactory mark on my very first evaluation. I knew it pretty much ended anything I hoped would come from that job. My dear friend, Brian Rath, came to me that day and said, "If we could order our lives the way we wanted them ordered, we would be miserable. God knows what he's doing in your life." Certainly, I had not sinned, but this was something I would have changed in a New York minute.

Ten years later, I sat beside Patti, the freshly widowed wife of my dear friend Mark. She stood in her church to thank them for the love and tenderness they had shown her, mere days after Mark's death. With tears streaming down her cheeks, she testified, "If I could see things the way that God sees them, this is the very thing I would choose for my family." Her three young children sat beside her, too. No sin involved here, either, yet Patti understood that Satan wanted her to wallow in regret and misery, while God, though she could not yet see it, knew the plans He had for her.

Regarding my sin, God could have stopped me, but He didn't. Now, He calls me to go and sin no more. He tells me that His strength is made perfect in my weakness. Where I am unable, He is more than able. Where I am broken and shattered, He is holy and complete. Where I am begrimed, He is white as snow and offers me daily cleansing and restoration as I confess my sin to Him.

He has allowed me to pass through what I have passed through to exalt His might and power in my life. Perhaps if you knew from whence I came, you, too, might laud God all the louder for what He has done in me.

Andree Seu has a stirring look at the glory that God has wrought to Himself through our broken lives. Give her a read (here), and sing praise to the God who has set your feet upon the Solid Rock.

Ponderances, 6 August

The heat: It was 94* here today. 94* never felt so good as when it's been over one hundred the last two weeks (and pushing 110* the last few days).

Root, root, root for the home team. Being a displaced Minnesotan (though I'm really an Arizonan), I've taken to my parents theory of loving the team that's close by. I can't bring myself to loving the Dallas Cowboys (sorry, Drew), but I have developed quite an affinity for the Texas Rangers. They're comfortably above .500 this year, and in fact, they'd only be 3.5 games out of first in the Twins' division. But because the LA Angels are playing surreal baseball, they're ten and a half games out in their division. Who said life's fair.

Today brought quite the rainshower to what's been a bit of a literary drought in Op-Ed America. Here are a few juicy articles for your chomping. I'll start with Walter Williams bit of history about the Barbary Wars (linked here). When US Ambassadors Jefferson and Adams (yeah, those guys) asked why the Muslims were attacking the US though unprovoked, the response received was:

“It was written in their Koran, that all nations which had not acknowledged the Prophet were sinners, whom it was the right and duty of the faithful to plunder and enslave; and that every mussulman who was slain in this warfare was sure to go to paradise.”

That was over 200 years ago.

Chasing your dreams. More baseball. It works so well so often when allegorizing life. Great article today about Evan Longoria (no he's not on "Desperate Housewives"), the man who seems to be the lock for Rookie of the Year (linked here). It's an especially good one to pass on to your teens or to motivate you to follow the dream God has place upon your heart.

Legal plunder. Many of you may never have heard the term. It's one with which you should be intimately familiar. Walter Williams writes about how commonplace acceptable thievery has become in our country and who the perpetrator is (linked here).

"Government income redistribution programs produce the same result as theft. In fact, that's what a thief does; he redistributes income. The difference between government and thievery is mostly a matter of legality."

Our Constitutional ignorance has cost us dearly.

There are a couple of other good reads out there but I'll leave you to mine the ore.

Laying up short, part 2

When you think of Olympic Superpowers, you'll not likely consider Austria or Switzerland. If your mind turns to skiing the two alpine nations will vault to the top of your list. And these two nations are to skiing what the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees are to baseball: they are the bitterest of rivals.

During the winter of 1976, the eyes of the world turned to Innsbruck, Austria. The Cold War was at its most frigid. Vietnam was behind us and Afghanistan was ahead of the Soviets. This was before Jimmy Carter and after Richard Nixon. The specter of Munich lay four years past in sportsman's memories. Bragging rights were at stake, and all nations were present.

I can only remember one thing from Innsbruck, 1976, but it remains chiseled in my mind with indelible detail.

Bernhard Russi of Switzerland had mastered the Alpine downhill for years. He owned the Olympic gold medal in the event from 1972 in Sapporo, Japan. Russi's time at Innsbruck locked him in for another gold medal.

At the top of the mountain stood Franz Klammer, an Austrian, bedecked in taxi cab yellow skiing tights, red boots and red helmet. The hometown hero. But there he stood facing the insurmountable time set by the Switzerlander and a mountain with no sympathy for his heritage.

When downhill skiers race, they'll top 90 mph as they careen down the slopes, their only protection a helmet that might prevent the crushing of the skull but will do little to deter the smashing of their brain inside said skull. No pads elsewhere; too much drag. Achieving championship speed, earning world-class victory requires speeds that dance the athlete on the edge of disaster. Many a skier has retired himself from the sport when the mountain scoffed at such ludicrous speeds.

And there stood Klammer. Three...two...one...

From the moment the Austrian cleared the starting gate, it was clear to this then thirteen-year old Minnesotan, Klammer didn't consider what the mountain thought. Most skiers slow before the tightest turns, hoping to keep their bodies from becoming one with the towering pines. Not so the brightly spandexed Klammer. He cared not a lick about completing the run. He skied to win.

The only drag he created occurred in digging his skis into the snow, just enough to get himself turned some other direction. When skiers would go over a hill, they try to tuck themselves, providing as small a target as possible for demon air to slow them down. When the skier's velocity gets away from him, the tuck deteriorates as he does everything in his power to maintain his balance. A Klammer released himself, velocity was no problem. Control was his issue and very few tucks were seen as he hurtled over ridges and around tight corners.

It was breathtaking.

The commentators didn't think he could keep up enough speed to get close to the Swiss giant coming out of his aerodynamic crouch. Klammer couldn't hear the commentators.

Had the young Austrian concerned himself with his life's peril, broken femur bones, or sloshed gray matter, he'd either have slowed to avoid such disaster or he'd have kept his speed and wrapped himself around an aspen. He did neither and the cameras pivoted trying to keep the speeding lemon drop framed for the network.

Over one of the final hills flew Klammer contorting himself like some twisted X to keep his weight over at least one ski and then somehow, back into his tuck for the race to the wire.

Thirty three one hundredths of a second, the bat of an eyelash, and Franz Klammer wrenched the gold from Russi. Had he throttled back or taken any turn or any hill with certain conservatism, he would not have clipped that whisper of time to dethrone the Swiss giant.

What if I crash? So? My body will heal. I'll never have such an opportunity again. The time is now. Tomorrow may never come.

I have only one life. God has set me atop the mountain and He has given me one run. Only one. Do I play it safe or do I fly like Klammer?

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:12-14)

Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like a man running aimlessly; I do not fight like a man beating the air. No, I beat my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27)

May my eyes rivet themselves upon Christ alone. It's long past time to point the ski tips down the slope and press on for the Gold.
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An aside: As we near the Olympics, I recommend a trip down memory lane with the movie "Miracle." Disney did a superb job recreating the magic of the 1980 story of David and Goliath. The first time I heard Kurt Russell master the Minnesota "Iron Range" accent, I laughed my head off. Besides, you just gotta love a movie about hockey! "AGAIN!"

Klammer photo by Steve Sutton

From sea to shining sea

Have you had the delight of burying your toes into the sands of Florida's panhandle? In my limited coastal experience, I've only seen sands whiter and felt them softer 1200 hundred miles to the west in, of all places, New Mexico.

Between the Sacramento Mountains to the east and the San Andres Mountains to the west lies a flat basin blotted in satellite imagery with a sizable expanse of white, the peculiarly placed White Sands National Monument. You get the impression that maybe sometime past that that region was under some manner of sea.

Our nation teems with places that gorge the senses. A delightful set of circumstances stuck me in Hawaii for three days. Being a novice snorkler, I felt like Jacques Cousteau gliding over the reefs of Oahu's Hanauma Bay. While the bay testified to the glory of God, the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor testified to the glory of God in man. Both stirred soul.

I work with many Europeans. To a man they all remark about the wonder of driving through Kansas (or Nebraska or Texas or Montana or South Dakota). We have driven a number of times down I-35 between Kansas City and Oklahoma City, and the unsurpassed vastness of our great land is astounding. In all of Europe there is no place so wide open, so uninterrupted.

Growing up in Minnesota, I did not see mountains firsthand until high school. My parents and I drove from Minneapolis to Sun Valley, Idaho. South Dakota is a vast flat except for the aptly named Black Hills (which to a Twin City boy were quite impressive). As we traveled west through Wyoming along I-90, I remember seeing dark clouds on the horizon thinking we'd have rain some time that afternoon. The more miles past, the clear the Rocky Mountains became. I like so many others had been startled to see the majesty of our western mountains.

On our way home, we passed through Jackson Hole, Wyoming and passed the Grand Tetons. If you have a list of places you want to see firsthand before God calls you to heaven, the Grand Tetons ought to be on your list. Pictures do not do their stark jaggedness justice.

Only one time, sadly, have I been to the Big Apple and it was while she slept. Arriving by plane into JFK in the middle of the night Sunday morning, I had to transfer over to Newark, NJ. I did not imagine so vast a city could be so quiet. It was an odd sensation.

I have been blessed to be in New England three other times and all of them fell in the fall. As spectacular as Minnesota colors are, they had nothing on the forests of Maine, New Hampshire, New York, and Massachusetts in the fall. Man's palettes could not capture such hues.

Flying over our nation at night will catch your breath. The LA basin abruptly ends east and west because of mountains and ocean respectively. The lights trail off in the east as civilization trickles into the Palm Springs passes but the distinct line along the Pacific Ocean's eastern shore is bizarre in its abruptness. The same phenomena occurs when flying over Chicago. The lights merely fade to the west end but seem to have been covered by an ebony blanket to the east. The DFW Metroplex has no such issue. From the air the entire world beneath you is city as the population mass stretches for so many miles to all compass points.

The piney forests of the upper Midwest smell as I imagine heaven to smell. The green of the rainy northwest seems artificial for its depth.

What city can match Washington DC for its tribute to history and to God? The alabaster monuments honor men of character and sacrifice, and they honor the God who made and strengthened those men. I have a soft spot for the delightful functionality of Minneapolis, Minnesota. What state capitol holds the charm and simple beauty of Madison, Wisconsin?

San Francisco, San Diego, Seattle, Denver, and Boston. Major cities of urban and natural beauty. All American.

We are and have been a people richly blessed. What nation has such places as Mt. McKinley and Glacier Bay, the Grand Canyon and Bryce Canyon, San Francisco Bay and the Nantuckett Sound, Niagra Falls and Wichita Falls? We have great plains and great mountains. We have great cities and great people.

Yes, we have been lavished upon to live in such a land.

America. My country. My home. May God continue to shed His grace on thee.

Teton photo by Ansel Adams