Whatever things are of good report

I used to know most "Gilligan's Island" episodes by heart.  When I was a kid, GI was on TV in the afternoons in reruns.  If I weren't outside hitting golf balls into the back of Guy Loushin's head, I'd be watching the inane antics of Gilligan and Skipper.  My parents knew I watched this program, and they had no fear.  They didn't have to worry about the Professor and Mary Ann having torrid sex behind the Howell's hut.  They didn't fear that the Skipper would start drawing Lovie away from Thurston.  They never could have even imagined an episode where Gilligan struggled with his sexuality.  They knew that Ginger wouldn't start cursing like a sailor to prove she was just as much of a man as the next guy.

That was then.  Any comedy that came out of the sixties upheld the moral fabric of middle America.  All of the fictions I concocted about that fictitious isle are what television comedy is all about today.  But it's not just the comedys that have degenerated.  The television is an inanimate object.  It could be used for good or for ill.  What comes through that ginormous flat screen--ah--there's the rub.  Here are just a couple of musings about the light and darkness within TV today.

• Racism.  This is a topic that will light my fuse faster than most.  The visceral hatred that anyone has for someone of different heritage boggles my mind.  Andy Dufresne's words come to mind.  "How can you be so obtuse?"  Today, racism within the black community has taken on a repugnance previously known in the backwater south.
  
  Since the election of Barack Obama, nowhere has been his skin color more of a factor than in liberal America.  Take Chris Matthews, for example (if you want a bad example, turn to MSNBC).  "He is post-racial by all appearances. You know, I forgot he was black tonight for an hour."  'Scuse me?  You want the entire hooded commentary, go here.  If we're past racism, then IT DOESN'T MATTER!!!  A "black man in front of a bunch of white people"?  Are you kidding me??  Harry Reid got a pass.  Chris Matthews will get a pass.  The only "real racists" in America are on the right.

• The Super Bowl, part I.  Over the years, Super Bowl ads have shown great innovation.  The E*Trade commercials with the talking babies are great.  On the flip side, it was during the Super Bowl that I first learned I have to keep the remote by my side.  No, it wasn't Janet Jackson.  A few years earlier, they cut away from the game for a station break and went to an add for some comedy.  Within a fraction of a second, a woman ripped her blouse open in front of some guy.  Charming.
  
  This year, the big to-do has been over the fact that the mother of Tim Tebow and the Heismann winning quarterback will be doing a commercial about her decision to not abort him during a high risk pregnancy.  The purpose?  To encourage women in crisis pregnancies to reconsider aborting their child.  The response?  You'd think they word advocating harems.  "This organization is extremely intolerant and divisive and pushing an un-American agenda," came the cry from the Women's Media Center about Focus on the Family, the organization that created the commercial.
  
  Funny that pro-choice organizations are concerned about the violence done to women because of pro-life ads when 50% of those aborted are women.  That would make the numbers in the ball park of 26 million little girls never had the chance to see the light of day because of laws protecting their dismemberment.
  
  Does it strike any as odd that a commercial promoting life would be controversial?
• The Super Bowl, part II.  CBS is considering an ad for a homosexual dating web-site.  No doubt those opposed are bigots.
• More MSNBC love.  A posted this through Facebook.  Forgive the reiteration.  Seemed the company that was making rifles for our soldier had been inscribing Bible verses on the scopes.  SHOCK!!  GASP!!  HORROR!!  Some gent from the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (i.e. no freedom) declares, "This is probably the best example of violation of the separation of church and state in this country."  His statement is perhaps the best example of overstatement and constitutional misunderstanding in this country.
  
  
  Seems the company had always stamped this horrifying verse to their product, "JN8:12."  Why?  It's founder was a Christian and wanted to give God the glory even through his business.
  Well, when Rachel Maddow got wind of this, it set off a diatribe worthy of Keith Olbermann, her MSNBC commrade in charms.  Her incisive analysis?  "You self-righteous, self-centered, endangering-the-troops idiots!"  Ah.  (Interesting commentary on Mizzzz Maddow's spleen-vent here).
  
  By the way, what was it that the grotesque verse proclaimed?
  
  

  Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life." 

  Whew. Maybe I should rate my blog for "Mature Audiences." Forgive me for not warning you about such a grisly concept.

Do you wonder why I have become such a Netflix fan?  I wonder if I can pick up GI reruns...

State of the Union, Part II

I'm jotting this on Wednesday afternoon to be posted Thursday.  Scout's honor, I haven't heard what our President will discuss regarding the state of our United States. 

In the first part of this post (here), I looked mostly outside our borders.  International politics, military, and the economy.  While the last one extends overseas, our understanding of economics and the government's role therein will affect our reach beyond our shores.

Let's turn our eyes inward.

Personal responsibility.  It stinks.  Think back to the settlers who headed west.  Their success or failure depended solely upon...them.  No government bail-outs.  No medicare.  No education.  Zip.  Go further back to those who crossed an ocean to start a new life with little more than the clothes on their backs.  Did they demand that the new land accomodate their foreign language?  No, they found folks of like mind and similar tongue to help them get assimilated into the new country.  Some never left Ethnictown, but most did and became Americans.  Not Italian-Americans.  Not Irish-Americans.  Not Japanese-Americans.  No, the primary label they wore, and wore with pride, was that of American.

All of these folks depended upon their own industriousness and should they need a hand, they did not turn to the government.  They turned to their neighbor.  They turned to their family.  They turned to their church.  And that need was generally brief, until such time as they could return to independent productivity within society.

We have developed a government addiction.  We believe we need a grotesquely obese bureaucracy to ensure folks have medical care, to guarantee an educated populace, and to make sure we don't breathe second-hand smoke.  No, it's my job to keep an eye out for me and my family.  You need my help?  Just ask.  Please, don't pick my pocket.  To our legislators state and national, we must ask them to slay the beast.  Were our governments all quartered, they'd still be too bloated.

Only in our willingness to accept responsibility for our own destinies can we even begin to restore our freedoms.

Culture.  What we have seen happen in our government, that we have ceded our responsibilities and the government has metastacized, has happened in our culture, too.  As we have released the moral leash within our own lives, Hollywood has continued taken that license to inject our entertainment full of such things that would not have been mentioned in our grandparents' day.  Is that a good thing?  No.  Francis Schaeffer emphasized that the arts merely reflect the fabric of the society.  In the 40's we had movies with character, movies that lauded heroism and highlighted the destructive nature of moral laxity.  Now, amoral abandon is the stuff of comedy TV.  Macabre dismemberment and maximal brutality equate to horror or suspense.  Drama today guarantees you'll get full-frontal and fouler language than was heard throughout the battle of Bastogne.  Why?  You and I ask for it.

The acceptance of homosexuality as a normal lifestyle and the disintegration of marriage as a fundamental building block of society merely reflects the moral rot within our own souls.

Should government step in and curb the culture?  No.  They shouldn't have to.  Our government reflects the people and our culture reflects the people.  Motion picture ratings?  What an absurd thought in the 40's.  Today you have parents dragging their tots to see Saw VI or letting their kids download audio-porn for the iPod. Can you imagine the Parker Brothers wondering what rating they would give to Monopoly?  You see the problem?  Personal responsibility among directors.  Personal responsibility among actors and musicians.  Personal responsibily from producers.  Personal responsibility by those buying tickets or DVDs or downloading tunes.  If that well fails to produce, they will eventually stop trying to produce such vileness.

Did our entertainment become so grotesque in a decade?  No.  It won't change in a fortnight, either.  If we want change, it starts with you and me. So what are you going to see or rent or download from iTunes?

Education.  The schools stink.  Sorry, but math, physics, chemistry, literature, grammar, etc. haven't changed a lot since I was a kid.  What's changed?  Our schools and our kids.  Let's start with the latter.  Because we have not disciplined a generation, because we refuse to fail children for poor performance, we've raised a generation with no fear of consequence.  Is it any wonder employers ache to find dedicated workers?  Why is that?  Parents.  Parents have failed to instill discipline within their children.  A child won't self-discipline until he's taught the consequence to ill-discipline as a young child.  If the parents did their job, the teachers wouldn't have a tenth of the problem they have in schools.

What about the schools?  They reflect the insane worldview of higher education than the worldview of the parents sending their kids to the schools.  While universities have rejected right and wrong, the average home still sees thing as pretty black and white.  While PhDs across the land see no difference between cultures equating canibalistic cultures with ancient Greece, Joe and Jan American bleed red, white, and blue.  They tear up during "Proud to be an American" while the Fourth of July fireworks light up the night. 

Whose fault is the deterioration of academia?  Yeah, that's you and me, too.  We let that happen.  If we want our communities to have public schools, then it should be a community decision.  Not a county or a state decision.  Certainly NOT a federal issue.  Mine is the responsibility to make sure my kids know how to add and subtract.  It's not yours.  How I choose to educate my children is my business, not yours.  That's the risk and the beauty of freedom.

I guess that's all I have for now.  I expect no applause.  The more we rely upon our government to solve our problems, the faster we slide into irrelevance as a nation both within and without.  Is it too late?  I hope not. 

But it's got to start in the mirror.

The State of the Union

Tonight our President will address the nation on how things are going.  Frankly, the dog-and-pony nature of the event turns my stomach.  The SotU after 9/11 interested me most.  Beyond that, it has become a cheering session for the party in power and an opportunity for dour faces and British insults for those in the minority.

So, from the deep in the heart of Wichita Falls, Texas, in the land where mesquite abounds and not much else, here's my take on the state of our nation.  Please hold your applause until all points are made.

• The Economy.  How much should you pay for a Big Mac?  Whatever you are willing to pay for it.  Should Mikey D's charge $17 for a 500-calorie gut bomb, few would buy them.  It would not be profitable to the Golden Arches, and so the price comes down.  A free market finds a good price for buyer and seller.  Just because there is a product on the market that you cannot afford, that does not mean the company is evil.  Save up you dineros (that's not too far away, is it?) and buy yourself a seventy-five foot yacht.  Or don't.  Bottom line:  This ought not be addressed in the SotU because it's not government's responsibility.  If a mega-corporation goes bankrupt, it should go bankrupt.  There are other places from which to purchase almost every product.
• The Military.  Still got the best in the world, but we have spread them thinner than than the Detroit Lions' defense.  How would you like to get married and then four years later, figure out that you've only seen your spouse for a year and a half out of that time?  That's what's happening.  You can only run a finely tuned engine for so long before it needs to rest.  Our military needs a rest
  
  It's also that branch of government, seems to be the only branch, that gets cut in its budget every year.  Here is an area where the government must be involved.  Most military offices are now only one deep.  When that person goes on vacation or gets deployed, things grind to the speed of LA at 5 p.m.  Neat computer programs have robbed us of personal interaction and efficiency.  And the government has robbed our military of the personnel and the equipment to get the job done that they are asking of it.
• International Politics.  Who hates us?  Okay, bad question.  Nearly everyone hates us, but most hate us for our success and our power.  Sour grapes.  When push comes to shove, who do they want on their team?  Yeah, US.
  
  Some hate us by nature.  Let's name a few.  North Korea.  Why?  Because we sided with South Korea and helped it become a successful and civilized nation.  Tyranny has driven NK into the dark ages.  Who else?  Venezuela and Cuba.  They're on the same track as NK, they just haven't shriveled on the vine nearly so fast.  Who else?  Russia.  More of that tyranny in the past.  Thought about joining civilization in the late 80's but Vlad the Impaler is taking them back to their Stalinesque heritage.  China?  Hmm...  Really, they creep me out.  Their Maoist roots loom like a spectre over the nation.  Do they hate us?  Hmm...  They sure have taken a liking to the bennies of capitalism, but the free-thought suppression and repression and the social tinkering through one-child policies has left them in a world of hurt.
  
  The biggest hater? The Islamic world. Granted we are tolerated by those nations that have tasted the fruit of a free market, but their Islamic roots leave them feeling like they've betrayed Allah.  Jordan and Egypt abide us.  Few others.  They loathe our Western decadence.  They loathe our triune God.  They despise our support for a Jewish homeland in their midst.  They like our money and our muscle if one of their neighbors crosses their border.  Mostly, though, total hatred.  Makes you feel kind of silly going to the defense of the likes of Saudi Arabia.
  
  Those who hate us but want us on their team, they like us if you press them to the mat, those are the folks who should be our buddies. All the other guys, sure, we'll talk to them if they want to play nice, but when they start getting uppity, we need to look out for our people and our borders.  Teddy Roosevelt, baby.  Big sticks!

Eh, you've endured enough for now. We'll call this an intermission, and I'll finish tomorrow. Lots still to cover! Much at stake for our aging nation. Will it endure to the 22nd century?

One flesh

This spring, my eldest two sons will walk down the aisle into holy matrimony, and I have to tell you, I'm stoked!

Tracy and I have prayed for these girls from the day we learned she was pregnant.  Granted, until we caught sight of our sons' plumbing, it was the generic spouse, but even on the grainy ultrasounds of yesteryear, we soon started praying for their wives.  We don't know their fiances as well as they do, but we could not be more pleased with the lassies the Lord has provided for our sons.

And why so stoked?  Because after nearly a quarter-century beside my bride I can say with a Christmas giggle that I would take any year I found myself in with her over all the preceding years.  I do not say that boasting.  As you well surmise if you've followed my blog for any period of time, I am a hard man to live with.  How richly blessed I am that I have a woman who does not keep score, a woman who loves me with a God-honoring love and seeks my very best.  At the same time, and with near-perfect imperfection, I attempt to love her as Jesus loves the church and gave himself up for her.

What has happened over the years?  We have become more and more what God intended in husband and wife, that we would become one flesh (Genesis 2:23-24).  By submitting ourselves to God and his designs, when we seek to be the groom or bride he would have us to be instead of demanding from the other the groom or spouse we want them to be, he (God) has crafted in our relationship something marvelous, something unique, something fulfilling, something exciting.

Please don't misunderstand.  We have issues.  We have come out of a most challenging season.  At the same time, there are no exits on our airplane.  There are no parachutes.  If we start getting smoke in the cockpit, we'd better figure out how to put it out.  We have worked through challenge upon challenge but always with the commitment to the Lord and to our marriage and thereby, to one another. 

What are we promised tomorrow?  Nothing.  Should we awake side by side, each new day together depends upon our commitment to one another.  50-50 fails.  Only when a spouse is willing to risk 100% can they know the kind of relationship God intends within marriage.  Only in losing their life will they find it.  Those who want to hold fast to their wants and desires will end up embittered and disillusioned.

Too many quit their vows in the early years because the white-hot passion wanes.  More and more, couples are quitting their vows after decades.  Newer model?  Dissatisfaction?  Frustration?  Too often one destroys the relationship by seeking relationship outside of marriage.  Not always.  Most of the time.

My boys know this.  They have seen it.  But they've also seen couples who have committed for the long haul.  They've seen the sweet fruit that grows from a tree that has put roots into a solid and nourishing foundation.  They know they have no guarantees in their marriage beyond the choices they and their brides make each moment of each day.  They know that their garden will flourish only so long as they tend it.  The longer the garden matures, the more beautiful the garden will become.  If left untended, it will become weed infested and unrecognizable.  As they ready themselves to walk the aisle, they commit themselves to God and to their bride that in sickness and in health, for richer and for poorer, forsaking all others they will tend to the sweet garden God has given them.

Should God grant me and my family twenty-five more years on this earth, I look forward to seeing what they have cultivated.  Until then, I'm off to mow my lawn.

Thy will be done

In keeping with rabbinical tradition, Jesus' followers wanted him to teach them to pray.  The Messiah obliged.  He taught them a model prayer.  Many have turned it into a meaningless mantra, but the Master gave them a framework upon which they might build their communication to the God of the universe.  It's an extraordinary prayer which helps the servant of Christ rightly order his life before God and rightly order his life with the world around him.  A couple sections really yank the leash of the self-righteous (i.e. me), and one of them has been throbbing in my temples of late.

Thy will be done.

Translated into 2010 English, "Hey, whatever you want to do is good by me."

Whoa!  Hey--um--whoa!  Thy will be done?!?  You might begin to imagine giving your kid the keys to the car and saying, "Whatever," or maybe telling your boss that you'll take on any project at any time and work as many hours as he needs you to work for the exact same wage.  Do visions of indentured servitude dance in your head?  You mean giving God free rein in your life to do with as he pleases?  Isn't that risky?

To the last two questions, Yes and Yes.

From the day of his first rebellion against God (Genesis 3), man has tried to put himself in the place of the One who created him.  We want to establish ourselves as autonomous in our lives.  We believe we know what's best for us, and frankly we don't need you or anyone else telling us how to manage our beeswax.  That only serves to drive a wedge deeper into the chasm that exists between God and ourselves.

The only solution to that rift is the finished work of Jesus Christ upon the cross.  Until he comes to reign upon the earth (Revelation 20), we can find reconciliation to God, but even with that, we still struggle against our innate desire to take his throne for ourselves. 

So why bother with "Thy will be done?"  Trust.  As those who have been reconciled to God through Jesus Christ, do we really trust him?  Lots of folks like the term "faith," but it has been so abused as to have been rendered meaningless, no more substantial than wishing on a rabbit's foot.  Trust implies acting upon someone or something that has proven itself to us in the past.  A pilot may don a parachute though he has never used one because he has seen them work in the past.  He trusts the parachute to rescue him should disaster strike.  To submit ourselves to God's will indicates a trust in the One who has proven himself worthy of trust.

He says he loves us.  Has he born that out?  "For God so loved the world (there's the assertion) that he gave his only Son (there's the proof of that assertion) that whosever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life (there's the call for trust)."  John 3:16.

The pages of the Bible bear out that "All things work together for good for those who love God and are called according to his purpose" in example after example.  It also bears out the darkness that follows those who stand opposed to him. 

What happens, though, if after giving God the reins of my life, I encounter crippling disaster?  And then a few miles later, we get smashed in the mouth with another catastrophe?  Do we take the reins back?  Do we reject him altogether?  Or as Job did, even though disaster befall us, will we still trust God (Job 13:15, 1:20-22)?  Despite his pleas and despite getting an audience with the Almighty, Job never got an answer to the why's of his predicaments.  He received a call to anchor himself to the One who ordered the cosmos.

What will befall me should I cede control of my life to my Creator?  I don't know.  Prosperity?  No guarantees.  Trauma?  No promises.  Will I know a joy and peace heretofore unknown?  Those are promised (joy and peace).  Will I have intimate fellowship with my God?  Yep (John 17:3).

I do know that the world stands in rebellion against God until the day of its restoration through the King of kings.  Because of that, a fallen world can and will strike without warning.  Since God has proven himself always faithful (semper fidelis), I will trust in him today. 

Should the sky darken in the west tomorrow, I pray today that he will give me the strength to continue to bow before him and plead, "Thy will be done."

QotD: Asinine linguistic contortions

With the 37th anniversary of Roe come and gone, I noticed the haunting silence from the media on the passage of such a date.  This morning I caught a wafer-thin piece on CNN's website (here).  Perhaps it's my disturbed ability to find the flaw within the diamond, but this quote jumped off the page as though it were wearing one of Elton John's 1970's Lucy-in-the-Sky outfits.

"A fetus is not a life, sorry," NOW President Terry O'Neill told CNN. "And no, nobody's religious conviction justifies taking women's ability to shape their own futures away from them."

Ah, the nullification of a conviction because it is religious.  Were it scientific, mathematical, or out of the mouth of George Clooney, it would be etched in granite.  Since it's religious, it's dismissed like Pee-Wee Herman.

What is it if not a life?  A cheeseburger?  It seems that that cheeseburger can be delivered at earlier and earlier stages of development and survive.  At what point, Ms. O'Neill, does it become "living"?

Based upon what the Bible says as highlighted with crystal clarity in Terry Champman's message, here's what Ms. O'Neill is really saying, "I say, it's not a life.  What God says has no bearing whatsoever upon the autonomy of the individual.  I am woman.  Hear me roar!"

Ms. O'Neill, you're argument is void of logic and sound reason and besides, you're just plain wrong. 

Sorry.

Waking up

What's the best part of a nightmare?  Waking up.  No question.

Some of them fade as soon as you realize they were some bizarre figment of whatever part of your mind sets those things off in the first place.  Others linger.  Your heart pounds, and you try to catch your breath.  You can't focus around the room.  Your mind grasps that the images of moments ago were not real, but like cobwebs stuck to your face, you cannot rid yourself of them.

When tragedy visits you, real tragedy, you wake in the middle of the night hoping that the memories will fade like a nightmare.  As the sobriety of consciousness settles in, the images do not fade.  No, it's not necessarily the terror of a nightmare.  It's an absolute grief over a reality that cannot be changed.

In the dark.

We all know someone who has had to endure such waking moments.  Over time, the grief is perhaps not as stark, but with open eyes and a determined will, you get out of bed knowing that that which consumes your thought is not a dream.

A few days ago, a local sportswriter noted that there was a victim to a local tragedy that did not get a lot of press (here).  A guy who received no pleas for prayer.  The guy?  The cause of the accident.

Let me stop for a minute and focus on that last word, accident.  Terri Otto's death was an accident.  You or I could have been behind the wheel of the truck on that dark, foggy, drizzly morning.  He was.  No alcohol.  No drugs.  I don't think he was texting or on his cell phone at 6 a.m.  Just a guy going to work.  An accident in the purest sense of the word.

I don't know his name, but put yourself in his shoes for a moment.  Imagine if every time you turned around in the press you heard about what an extraordinary, God-annointed, God-appointed woman Terri was (here, in case you missed it).  And you were behind the wheel of the vehicle that robbed her husband and children of her tender presence.  Imagine.  Any idea what mornings would be like?  Ponder the utter silence that abounds at 2 a.m.

Few can.  I can't.  And so I pray.  Nothing in life could heal such a wound.  I can't.  You can't, either.  800 packing a church can't.  But there is One who can.  God saw fit within his Law to Israel to provide a place where folks could go who caused accidental deaths, a place where they would be free from prosecution.  This man will not be prosecuted.  He shouldn't be.  But the accuser of men, Satan, will attempt to torment this man to his destruction.  Jesus Christ came that man might have life to the full.  That includes the truck's driver.

Please pray that this man would cast his burdens upon the One, Jesus Christ, who aches to carry his burdens.  Pray that one day in the future he might rise to a day with a smile at the corner of his mouth instead of anguish tarnishing his heart.

Please, please pray for him.

Pro--what? Roe at 37

January 22nd.  For most, not much of a date.  Christmas recedes in the review mirror of our memory.  Valentine's Day looms.  MLK Day, the time to honor a man who stood with character upon the principles of God Almighty.  But January 22nd?

On January 22, 1973, seven Supreme Court Judges made legal the 50 million-plus reported abortions that have occurred in the United States since that date.  How big is that?  Take these cities:

1. New York
2. LA
3. Chicago
4. Houston
5. Phoenix
6. Philadelphia
7. San Antonio
8. Dallas
9. San Diego
10. San Jose

Imagine every soul within those cities suddenly dying.  Got it?  All of those deaths would only be half of the 50 million killed through abortion.  Half.

Emotional topic in our country.  Volatile, even.  Are you Pro-Life or are you Pro-Choice?  That question blurs the heart of the matter.  What is at stake within the womb?  What resides kicking the uterine walls?  What is it that's making the woosh-woosh-woosh within the doctor's stethascope?  What is it?

No.  Who is it?  For the father and the mother, it is their child.  I heard a message this week where Terry Chapman said, "I have never heard a pregnant mother refer to the thing in her belly as a "blob of tissue.""  No, for the parents, it is their baby.

If you wonder what the Bible has to say about life in the womb, I encourage you to listen to Terry's message.  If you wonder if the God of the universe can forgive a person for aborting their child (he can and does, by the way), I encourage you to listen to Terry's message.  No, the Pro-Life movement isn't a pack of wild-eyed, rabid zealots.  Hear what a clear voice has to say about life in the womb.

There is little more grievous to God as the death of the innocents.  At the same time, God's lavish grace and mercy, as evidenced by the death of his Son on the cross to atone for ALL of man's sin, can heal and forgive the soul that has walked that dark valley.

Listen to Terry Chapman's message on this painful topic here. 

(Terry Chapman speaks about Terri Otto in the first five minutes of his message.  Terri was tragically killed the day before Terry gave this message.  She ached for the women involved in unexpected pregancies and was passionate about the babies they carried.  She ached for the women crushed with the guilt of having aborted their baby.  You can read my previous post about Terri here.)

Terri

A wretched experience.  In a tick of the clock everything changes.  The oxygen is sucked from the room.  Everything on your plate gets swept into the trash and the plate shatters against the concrete.

Saturday morning, my bride sat reading God's word while I prepped some homemade waffles.  Just enjoying the quiet of the morning before the kids rousted looking for their gridded goodness.  The quiet broke when she received a call from a network of friends to pray for a woman who had been in a bad accident while running.  Her name, Terri Otto.  Terri and her husband, Dave, are good friends. 

I immediately began to dress to run to the hospital and be with Dave.  My son stumbled from his bedroom saying that he received a call from the wife of a co-worker of mine saying Dave had been trying to get in touch with me.  I remembered that my phone had been sitting on my night stand. 

I rushed to the bedroom to learn I'd missed two calls from Dave that morning.  I hit the call back.  An unfamiliar woman's voice answered.   Sobbing.  "We're all praying right now.  Terri just died."

Tick.  Crash!

That was five days ago.  Many of you know the rest of the story.  Many of you don't.  Perhaps I'll tell it another time.  My point here is to provide a consolidated location about what's been written and broadcast about a woman who loved her God and was used mightily by him.  She honored him in life.  And in her death, at her memorial, God was greatly honored, too.  To be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.  We ache the absence and rejoice in expectant hope at seeing her one day again before the throne of God.

Here are a few links in sequence:

Sunday - Newpaper on the accident:  here
Sunday - TV news coverage of the accident:  here

Moday - TV news on memorial donations:  here

Tuesday - Obituary:  here

Wednesday - Newspaper on the impact of her life:  here
**NEW** 
Wednesday - Audio from the memorial service:  here
Wednesday - TV news piece on the memorial service:  transcript or video

Funeral home tributes:  here
Funeral home obituary:  here

--------------------

Terri was passionate about her work with the Pregancy Help Center in Wichita Falls.  Dave has asked that if you would like to donate a memorial on behalf of Terri to do that to the Pregancy Help Center in her name or to the Air Warrior Courage Foundation on behalf of the children's education.  Follow the links below.

• Pregancy Help Center of Wichita Falls
• Air Warrior Courage Foundation

So where was God?

Pat Robertson really needs to keep his mouth shut.

Just about every people group has that individual that makes you wince anytime you see their lips part.  The Democratic Party's got Keith Olbermann and James Carville.  Republicans have Ann Coulter and the caustic Michael Savage. If you could get past the bombast of these folks, they might actually have ideas worth listening to, but your average Joe doesn't want to put on a chemical warfare ensemble to try and figure out their rhetoric.

Protestant Christianity's got Pat. He's a Southern Baptist by denomination, but I know few Southern Baptists that rally behind his rantings. Every time disaster strikes the planet, Pat pounds his pulpit and pronounces that God has unleashed judgment upon that point of geographic suffering. Most recently, according to Reverend Robertson, Haiti seems to have fallen into the Lord's crosshairs.

(The Presidential Palace in Haiti)

Before I dismiss Pat as fast as I have the other Three Reverend Stooges (Jackson, Sharpton and Wright), a couple of notes about Haiti. While most of the populace espouses Catholicism, they entwine that already iconic religion with the tendrils of voodoo and African mysticism. The God of the Bible loathes such syncretistic blends (2 Kings 17:29-41).  So is there merit behind Robertson's railing?  Is there biblical evidence to indicate God has unleashed his fury upon the tiny Caribbean island?  Or has Pat been hitting the Geritol too hard?

Well, if you believe in no God, then these things just happen.  It was neither good nor bad, just part of life that's red in tooth and claw.  Not much comfort there.

If you believe in the deist God, then he was spectating just as he is spectating now.  Is he like me watching the Vikings?  Again, not a lot of comfort.

If you believe in the "loving God" who has no place for hell, judgment, condemnation, etc., then why would he let such things happen?  That's always a toughy.

Then there is the God of the Bible, Testaments Old and New.

There was a time when that God provided prophets to identify pending disasters as the Lord’s judgment upon the sin and rebellion of his creation. The day of the prophets is arguably long past, so let’s go with GPS precision to God’s own words as he provided the color commentary to such events in the life of mankind (I’ve mentioned this before when disaster has waylaid the planet, but prattlers like Pat make it necessary to resod the same acreage).

As we do throughout the year, the people of Jesus’day endured horrifying news. During one such season, Pilate, the Roman governor who had Jesus crucified, mixed the blood of some of Jesus’ countrymen with his pagan sacrifices. Nice guy. Also in the news was a skyscraper (by their standards) that collapsed and killed eighteen folks. As those around him pondered the news of the day, Jesus pointed back, “Do you think that these folks who perished were worse sinners than all others because they suffered such things?"  (Luke 13:2)

A couple interesting points.  First, he didn't deny the sin of those who died.  It's inherent within all men.  It is our nature.  As such, a just and holy God would have been perfectly in the right to smudge out all of humanity.  God happens to love his creation and man in particular (created in his image and all that).  John 3:16 clarions that love for man, a love that would satisfy the justice and make restoration between God and his children.

Second, God recognizes that such events cause suffering.  In a world marred by man's sin, in a world under the curse of man's sin, even the earth groans under the weight of such sin.  Sometimes it bites back.  But within Jesus' statement is the satisfaction of justice.  The wrath of God upon the rebellion of mankind was satisfied upon his Son as he hung on the cross.  The wrath of God will again be poured out on a humanity that has rejected that gift on the earth.  Finally, those who reject that gift will receive their hearts desire in the afterlife, eternal separtion from God on the day of final judgment (Revelation 20:11-15).

Third, Jesus never gives God's reason for allowing such things to take place on the earth today.  He forces the surmisers' eyes off of those who died and upon the inky darkness of their own hearts.  "No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish" (Luke 13:3, 5).  Whoa.  There's that sin thing again. 

So what the Lord was saying was that when such devastation strikes so very close to home, perhaps we should use such an event to take inventory of our own hearts before God.  It was Jesus first sermon as he started his ministry.  "Repent."  For those of us not crushed by the cement of a cities collapse, we can take stock of our lives before God.  And he has provide the means for our cleansing, our healing, and our restoration to him.  No point in contemplating the why's and wherefore's the darkness that devastated Haiti.

Perhaps Pat Robertson--and the rest of us--should be taking stock of the darkness a little closer to home, and reaching out a hand to those in desperate need tonight.

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(Apart from prompting existential pondering, such disasters give humanity the opportunity to reflect the greatest attributes of God, those of charity, compassion, and sacrifice.  While you and I may not be able to go, there is much that we can do to help...with no reward.  Two possibilities:

• Pray.  God hears.  God cares.  God works and God moves.  And God is there even now just as he was there before, during and in the aftermath of the upheaval.
• Contact a relief organization you trust to get the aid to the agony to make monetary donations or donations of food, water, or other provisions.

Luke 7

Of late I have anchored myself in the physician's account of Jesus, the man from Nazareth.  His historical garnishes provide insights into first century Judea like no other writer.  John MacArthur recognized Luke's penchant for detail by noting his account of Paul's imprisoned cruise to Rome gives nautical historians more information on ancient seafaring in the Med than any other written work (Acts 27).

Anyway, back into the gospel, I was blessed this morning by a number of morsels that I'll be savoring throughout the day.

1. Centurions.  This whole section (Luke 7:1-10) blows the mind in so many ways.  The mutual love between the Roman for the Jewish community he oversaw.  He built a synagogue for the Jews.  His extraordinary faith in Jesus' authority.  What I was left wondering as I feasted upon this section, did he ever get a chance to formally meet his Savior this side of paradise?  They didn't meet in this section.
   
2. The Baptizer.  When Jesus first enters the ministry scene, John the Baptist, Jesus' cousin, heralds the Lord's identity and his authority.  As Jesus' fame grew and John's crowds waned, the baptizer accepted this and rejoiced in this (here).  In Luke 7, John has been imprisoned for some time by Herod Antipas.  As he languished in a dank jail, doubts began to creep into his mind.  Was Jesus really the Messiah?  Maybe I was wrong.  So John sends some disciples to ask him.  Jesus didn't rebuke their questioning his identity.  John struggled (as I sometimes do).  He wanted to know (as I sometimes do).  So the Christ provided physical evidence in fulfillment of prophecy and told John's disciples to go and report what they had seen.  As they turned to walk away, I imagine a smile of deep pride cross the Savior's face knowing the love of John, knowing the baptizer would soon die a martyr's death, knowing that he too would soon follow, as he said to them, "Blessed is the one who is not offended by me."
   
3. The Drunkard.  Much of the biblically Christian world has an erroneous view of alcohol.  That's somewhat ironic considering their high view of the word of God and of teaching and understanding it aright.  Oddly, man seems to think Jesus did not consume alcohol during his earthly ministry or that the "wine" spoken of in Scripture was so diluted with water as to have no inebriating effects.  That's not the way Scripture reads.  And I haven't seen that born out historically, except among those asserting alcoholic prohibition.
   
   All that aside, it seems plain in Luke 7 that Jesus did consume wine and wine that could make drunk if improperly consumed.  Christ compared and contrasted his ministry with John's and how they had both been received by the religious of their day.  He said,
   

   For John the Baptist has come eating no bread and drinking no wine, and you say, 'He has a demon.' The Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say, 'Look at him! A glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners!'
   

   Jesus admits to drinking (it was no big deal for that was a normal beverage of the day).  What he drank was of such a quality as to be able to cause drunkenness because his enemies indicted him for being a drunkard because of what he drank.
   
   Am I encouraging you to go out and buy cases of the finest Cabernet?  No.  Just wanting to make sure we're on the same page.
   
4. Love.  The last section of Luke 7 tells of a harlot who lavished the Lord with love.  Real love.  Deep affection.  Heart-broken adoration understanding her filth and the mercy of the One whom she anointed.  After skewering his unloving host, Jesus says,
   

   Therefore I tell you, her sins, which are many, are forgiven—for she loved much.
   

   A couple eye-poppers on this one.  Jesus didn't deny or ignore or rationalize her rebellion against God.  Notice his qualifier about her sins, "...which are many."  You can imagine him nodding in concession with his host that, yes, she was a bad woman.  If we simply had this verse, we would think that her actions earned her forgiveness.  That was not the case.  Notice Jesus' words as he turned to the whore.
   

   Your faith has saved you; go in peace.
   

   She knew she had no merit.  She could only trust in the man who reclined at the table.  Her trust in him was manifest in her acts of love.  Her weeping and anointing were the vehicles of her faith.  She could not purchase or procure her right standing with God through her actions.  It was trusting him alone with impoverished hands that established her aright before God.
   

Time to sign off and travel my day in the peace obtained for me by the One who could obtain it.

Just another day: For we are many

Let's see what's grinding away in the gristmill today.

• Rumble beat!  Did you hear about the quake in California?  If you lived there, I'm sure you did.  I remember getting onto an elevator in Vegas one morning, and before the elevator started moving, it started moving.  Side to side and up and down vice simply up or simply down. Four-point-something if I remember correctly.  When I returned to my then-home in Phoenix, my bride who had still been abed at the time of the trembler, said she felt it, too.  Anyway, the earth keeps shakin'.
• When you're not a racist.  Please tell me, when are we going to stop including ethnic heritage on applications, etc?  The only real African-American is the dude who just immigrated here from Libya, South Africa, or any point in between.  Like an Irish-American just got off the boat (or the plane (can you say that without parroting Herve' Villechaize?))  from Dublin.  I contend that both would be more likely to simply refer to themselves as "American" and with great glee.  Why must you refer to yourself as an African-American?
  
  Which takes me to the second classification question, why can certain people expose their utter ignorance with racist pigeon-holing and not be ostracized from public discourse while others get excoriated?  Why do we still hear from Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and their ilk, but Trent Lott and Jimmie the Greek get an immediate sentence to Siberia?  Why does Harry Reid get a "tsk-tsk" as opposed to joining Trent in his yurt?  Why does past racial oppression give you a right to be racist today?  Should northeastern America hate the Brits?  Should the French hate the Germans?  Interestingly, it seems there's a greater loathing from east to west than from west to east?  Should Hawaiians hate the Japanese?  And why can Democrats get a pass (Robert Byrd), but Republicans get held to account?  Grrr...
  
  Should there be a law against racist remarks?  Should there be hate crimes?  NOOOOOO!!!!  Should it matter that I murder you because I hate you or that I murder you because I racially hate you?  Nope.  Gimme the chair on both accounts.  What if I'm at work and I make an ass of myself by referring to whitie as "cracker?"  My boss should have the freedom to fire me for not wanting such filth in his establishment.  As John Stossel is so fond of saying, folks will come to learn if your place of business is inhospitable to racist filth.  You will attract the kind of clientele you hope to attract.  Let the masses police the masses.
  
  In other words, let Harry Reid's constituents impeach the slime.
• More darkness.  Have you heard about the new movie "Legion?"  Here's the premise:  demons have to save mankind from an angelic host.  I will keep my eyes peeled to see how it does at the box office.  It says alot about what we have become that such a film would even be made.  What if it's a blockbuster?
• Scylla and Charybdis.  No doubt you've heard of the oppressive Israelis being mean to the displaced, peace-loving Palestinians of Gaza, right?  Did you know that Egypt's got nothing for them either?  Yeah.  They're building a wall between Egypt and Gaza.  Pretty cool.  It's not that their Palestinian.  It's because of the cancer, Hamas, and the fact that they hate peace.  Israel could offer Hamas all the sea front property along the Galillee with ready built estates, and Hamas would reject.  Hamas wants only the demise of Israel, and they have nothing for those allied with that nation.  Read it here.

• Things that go boom.  Many empathize with terrorists self-detonate in crowded marketplaces or attempt to ignite their knickers on crowded planes.  Why?  They feel that these folks have been economically oppressed by American oil, that they simply haven't had the advantage of a Berkley education, that if we just offered them sympathy and trust abounding then love would steer the stars.  Not so much.  Seems doctors do it, too (here).  And army majors.  And TV station owners.  Now, what was the common thread? 
• Bummer.  Saw on FoxNews this morning where a 104-year old man died when he was hit by a car.  Somehow that would be like Michael Phelps drowning.  Sad.
• 'Roids.  Mark McGwire admitted to using performance enhancing drugs.  I'm shocked, shocked I tell you.  You mean he didn't go from pencil-statured Oakland A to bridge-piling St. Louis Cardinal by doing more reps on the bench???  Shocked, shocked.

That's probably all you can stand for one day. At least the Vikings are still in the playoffs. But then, they haven't yet played, and Dallas looms like Legion.  Come on, Fran Tarkenton!!

Supernatural loathing, supernatural love

Let's do word association but let's use names instead.  Ready?  What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you hear the name:

Abe Lincoln.  Honesty?  Emmancipation?  Slavery?  Civil War?  Funny Beard?  Stove-pipe hat?

That was easy.  How about this one:

Bob Hope.  USO?  Viet Nam?  Troops?  Slapstick?  Golf?  Ski-sloped nose?  Actor?

Or how about:

Ted Bundy.  Horror?  Execution?  Serial killing?  Capital punishment?  Pornography?

Ick.  Sorry.  Something a little lighter.

Laura Ingalls Wilder.  Stories?  Wonder?  Beauty?  Goodness?  Family?  Pioneers?  Half-pint?

Really it's extraordinary what names can evoke in our hearts and minds.  They are more than words, more than labels.  Our name becomes our identity.  You can change your name to Ochocinco, Prince or some bizarre symbol, but you can't escape escape the "dork" that is associated with it.  Your name plainly identifies you.

Here's another name.

Mohammad.  Islam?  Prophet?  Peace?  Jihad?  Allah? 

Mention the name Mohammad around most folks and you'll not likely get a viceral reaction.  Perhaps a yawn.  Some may say something about of terrorist activities.  Some suggest he's prophet of peace.  Others identify him as the founder of the world's largest cult.  Does his name illicit hatred?  Maybe in Israel.  Maybe among a thin fraction of Americans.  Most just shrug him off as a religious guy not of their flavor.
One more name.

Jesus Christ.  God?  Teacher?  Rabbi?  Man?  Madman?  Myth?  Epithet?  Savior?  King?  Delusional?

Do you know of any other names used as curses and exclamations?  You might find Pete and his sake much further down the list.  Samuel Hill would be even further down stream.  Mom's a fan of Judas Priest, and not the rock band.  No, Jesus Christ ranks among the top curses out there.  Not Mohammad.  Not Buddha.  Not Davey Koresh.  Jesus.

Apart from man's affinity for slurring Jesus' name, there exists no more unwelcome name in serious conversation than Jesus Christ's.  Drop his name and you'll not get a dispassioned shrug.  In fact, I surmise that a fractional minority would shrug at the name.  You'll get eyes that well with tears of love and eyes that flame with primal hatred.  The world witnessed the latter a few weeks back when Brit Hume suggested that a relationship with Jesus Christ would be just the ticket for Tiger Woods to cure the hellish slice that had become his life.

Wow.  Had Hume suggested that Woods undergo a sex change to solve his problems, we would likely have heard nothing of it.  Had the journalist encouraged Mr. Woods to anchor himself in his Buddhism, we could have heard the yawns from Yakima.  Nobody would have noticed had Hume advocated for the general God, that nameless unknowable deity who many presume to be the one behind the curtain of all religions, but Brit Hume got specific.  No, worse.  Brit Hume went Christian.  In public.  On a news program!

The response came swiftly.  If Fox is the place you'll hear folks chat with normality about Jesus Christ, MSNBC sees the name as far more subversive than some Islamic loon trying to detonate his underpants.  From the mouth of stellar sportscaster gone rancid, Keith Olbermann, we get this peek into the heart of what one camp thinks about introducing folks to Jesus Christ (the entire schtick is here -- yikes!):

"This crosses that principle “Keep religious advocacy out of public life” since the worst examples of this are Jihadists not to mention guys who don’t know their own religions or other people’s religions like Brit Hume."

Wow.  I could spend the next few blog posts pondering the Orwellian creepiness of Mr. Olbermann's opinion.  For example, when did religion get relegated to privacy?  Why can one's convictions about God not influence his life outside his home and/or church?  A Christian telling an unbeliever about what Jesus said about heaven and hell is equivalent to lopping off the head of Daniel Pearl or blowing up the USS Cole or razing military barracks in Lebanon or Dhaharan or 9-11?  Let me anchor for a bit on knowing other people's religions and hating Jesus Christ.

If Mr. Olbermann had a working knowledge of Christianity he would know the mandate Jesus gave to his followers to go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them, teaching them to observe all his commands. 

If Mr. Olbermann understood Christianity, he would know that Jesus and his disciples seemed to think that man was a broken mess through his own rebellion against God and that the only way solution was Jesus alone.  Two verses after John's famous third chapter, sixteenth verse, he states, "Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God." 

Ooh.  That's not a very Jack Black Jesus.  He sounds downright condemnatory.  Peter, one of Jesus' closest friends, had the gall to assert, "And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved."  That's not the stuff of MSNBC.  Jesus claiming that no man gets to the Father but through him is not very all inclusive, it's not very open-armed to Islam or Zorastrianism.

But you know what?  He knew he wasn't going to make friends.

"Do not think that I have come to bring peace to the earth. I have not come to bring peace, but a sword.  For I have come to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law."

He told his disciples, "You will be hated by all for my name's sake."

Why?  Why this absolute loathing?  Olbermann wouldn't hemorrhage if Hume advocated Pilates, so why so with the Prince of Peace?  Why is it adoration or acrimony and not apathy?

Is it because, as the Bible indicates, that man stands opposed to God, hostile to the commands of the One who created him?  Paul indicated that one day every knee would bow and acknowledge the lordship of Jesus Christ.  If man is not willing to so acknowledge in this lifetime, the sobriety and tragedy of the next will make all too plain the truth behind what Christ proclaimed. 

And therein lies Olbermann's loathing.  His reason does not reign supreme.  How dare anyone suggest that there is a God to whom we are accountable, to whom we are answerable?  How dare one declare that apart from God's solution, we will spend eternity condemned and separated from God in a state of everlasting torment?  How dare we?  Because that is what God himself declares throughout his word.  And so the Brit Hume's of the world offer up what Jesus told us to offer up, the solution to man's sin problem.  Him.  Jesus Christ himself.

Really, his name is wonderful.  It is the name upon which life hinges.  Should that be repugnant?  Not really.  It's not surprising that it's vile to so many, but it doesn't have to be that way.

Where have you gone, Mrs. Miniver?

Names don't always tell the story.  Would Marion Morrison and Archibald Leach have gone on to cinematic excellence if they'd not changed their names to John Wayne and Cary Grant?  Would Alphonso d'Abruzzo have won the role of "Hawkeye Pierce"?  Alan Alda did.  For you ancients, remember Ted Knight of the Mary Tyler Moore Show?  Tadeus Wladyslaw Konopka.  Welcome to America.

Last night, my bride and I snuggled on the couch to watch "Mrs. Miniver."  The title alone sent my boys screaming.  Had I said we were watching "The Two Towers" for the bajillionth time, I'd have sons coming out of the woodwork.  In the minds of three-quarters of progeny, there is perhaps no greater testosterone neutralizer than to marry Netflix with "classic", black-and-white, and a title that smacks of "Little Women."  Son number three tagged along because I guilted him into it, I enticed him with with "It's a World War II movie," and perhaps most effective of all, he had nothing else to do.

Background for those who haven't seen it.  It is a World War II movie in the purest sense.  It takes place during WWII, but more than that, it was released during WWII (1942) and has a breath-taking, pro-WWII message.  Winston Churchill suggested it did more to aid the war effort than a flotilla of destroyers.  The sermon/speech at the end of the movie (included at the end of this post) by the vicar so stirred the soul that Time and Look reprinted it, and FDR had it copied and air-dropped over Europe as propoganda.  Director William Wyler, born in Germany, admits that he hoped that his movie would motivate the United States to enter the war against his homeland.

Cutting to the credits:  It was a GREAT movie!

Hey, Hollywood!  What have you done for me lately? 

I have heard that "The Hurt Locker" was reasonably pro-Iraq War film, but with lavish profanity, how accessible is that to middle America?  The only qualifications "Mrs. Miniver" needs is that two scenes get intense during air raids and alcohol and tobacco use is the norm if that bothers you.  Beyond that, it could not be more pro-family (of the husband-wife-multiple kid kind), pro-religion, and pro-freedom/pro-country.  Where are the films that show the hellish face of terrorist Islam?  Where are the films that show the salt of the American church-going family?  Where are the films that laud personal sacrifice, understanding the weight thereof, and of personal responsibility?  Where are the films that I can enjoy with my wife and sons without enduring gratuitous violence, sex, or language?

Yeah, "Mrs. Miniver" has a lot to be desired as a title.  Compare that with "Gladiator" or "Braveheart."  But getting past the cover to plumb the depths of a quality story with an soul-stirring message--ah, now that's entertainment.  I guess that's why it's a classic.
-------------------------------

Take a moment to savor the vicar's speech at the end of Mrs. Miniver.  It occurs within his bombed-out church during a mass funeral of parishoners:

We, in this quiet corner of England, have suffered the loss of friends very dear to us - some close to this church: George West, choir boy; James Bellard, station master and bell ringer and a proud winner, only one hour before his death, of the Belding Cup for his beautiful Miniver rose; and our hearts go out in sympathy to the two families who share the cruel loss of a young girl who was married at this altar only two weeks ago.

The homes of many of us have been destroyed, and the lives of young and old have been taken. There is scarcely a household that hasn't been struck to the heart. And why? Surely you must have asked yourself this question. Why in all conscience should these be the ones to suffer? Children, old people, a young girl at the height of her loveliness. Why these? Are these our soldiers? Are these our fighters? Why should they be sacrificed?

I shall tell you why. Because this is not only a war of soldiers in uniform. It is a war of the people, of all the people, and it must be fought not only on the battlefield, but in the cities and in the villages, in the factories and on the farms, in the home, and in the heart of every man, woman, and child who loves freedom!

Well, we have buried our dead, but we shall not forget them. Instead they will inspire us with an unbreakable determination to free ourselves and those who come after us from the tyranny and terror that threaten to strike us down. This is the people's war! It is our war! We are the fighters! Fight it then! Fight it with all that is in us, and may God defend the right.

Not an original thought to be had

Much has been rattling in my cage of late.  This post will not be one of them.

I did come across a couple of reads this week that provide a nice start to the weekend.

• The dim bulb of the north.  As the loathing of Sarah Palin continues on the east and left coasts, Larry Elder discusses the Alaskan politico with the family physician.  So what's really wrong with Sarah?  Find out here.
• Nordlinger.  No, it's not a drink.  I mention him at least once a month.  The man has a crysalline perspective of the world around us.  Some stuff to make you smile about America and cringe about the dark world in places beyond our borders.  Wade through page one and enjoy page two.  Okay, enjoy them both pages here.

A brief story to end the week.  Before my dad passed away, he initiated a football pool between him, me, and my four sons.  We created a trophy that would go to the annual victor of that football pool, and since dad's years were in short supply, we named it after him.  It's called "The Gibby" for Gilbert Otho Pond.  Dad won it that first year.  The next year, he died in November, in commanding position to win it a second straight year.

Over the years, none of the remaining five of us has retained sole possession of The Gibby.  Tyler kershwolloped us all last year, the year after I beat him by a single point on the final game of the season.  As this year got to ginning up and the boys and I began to get excited about starting another season of pigskin prognostication, my bride, Tracy expressed an interest.  She'd noted our near obsessive frenzy for 17-weeks of the last eight seasons.  She'd watch the Super Bowl with us out of courtesy or sit by my side just to be with her man when the Vikings played, but football?  Not her thing.  So there were some winks and elbows amongst the men as my bride pleaded, "You're not going to make fun of me if I do this are you?"

Then she clobbered us the first week.  And the second.  And the third.  In fact, she held first place through week eleven and in week twelve, only ceded the lead by a single point.  She let Drew think he was going to be somebody until week sixteen when she wrested the lead back and drove a stake into our collective hearts on week 17 by blowing us all away.

So now a rookie has her name on the most vaunted of heirlooms.  You never know what's going to happen unless you try.  Guess I'll go bake some cookies.

Way to go, honey!

2010 challenge

Good morning, 2010.  Good morning, friends.

Yesterday I issued a challenge general.  Don't fret the questions.  Just set sail and savor the journey.

Today I issue a challenge specific.  Read the Bible in 2010.

I grew up in a church-going home.  I attended Sunday school as a child and church nearly every Sunday.  My college years, like that of many, brought about a rebellion where I did it my way and left little room for God in my life.  I attended church from time to time and flipped through the pages of the Bible with a bit less frequency.

During those years, God made me acutely aware of my rebellion to Him.  Looking back, I would have to say that it was during those years that I actually became a Christian (that's a hugely weighted statement.  I'll tell you about it if you'd like to know, just e-mail.  Perhaps I'll blog the journey someday).  During that time, my love for Christ's church began, too.

A half-dozen years passed before I embarked one January first upon the most significant journey of my Christian life.  I began to read the Bible.  From that January through December 31st of that year, I read through the Bible.  All of it.  It's really not that daunting.  It's only 3 to 4 chapters a day.  It was extraordinary.

For the non-Christian or nominal Christian, we say we know the Bible and we know Christianity, but we never read it for ourselves.  We think we know, but we don't.  See for yourself.  Read for yourself.  If for no other reason than it stands as one of the most remarkable literary works in the history of man, it should be read by all.  Figures of speech and histories that we use commonly are found within the pages of the Bible.

For the Christian, nothing gives a greater understanding of what Christ has done on our behalf and the life he has calls us to than pouring through his word to us.

Three to four chapters a day.  If you read four each day, you'll be done sometime late October.  When you hit the really long chapters, ease off to three.  When you hit Psalm 119, just read it.  Otherwise, try and knock out 4 per day.

If you go on-line, you can find a multitude of ways to read through the Bible.  You can do as I did and plow through cover to cover.  Some plans have you reading through chronologically (cover to cover is not chronological).  Some plans dip into the Old and New Testaments.  There are even sites where you can tailor your plan.

You want simple.  Start in Genesis and go through the Revelation.  Start today and don't get discouraged.  Some of it is dry reading (the start of Numbers will be tough), but don't let the difficult passages sink your ship.

There it is.  My challenge to you:  Read through the Bible in a year.  Believer or not, you'll be amazed at the treasures you'll find.