Bushie is one step closer to having preemptive nuclear strike powers.
You are now excused to go change your underwear.
Now then, time to go build that fallout shelter I've always wanted.
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Wednesday, September 14, 2005
Thankful
(This got a bit rambly...forewarned)
Joyful news! John and Peggy, the couple from MS who are visiting our church, have reported that all of their family are safe and accounted for. In addition their home has sustained only minor damage. We are thankful for the good news even though we will miss the wonderful fellowship they have brought to our fellowship as they head home tomorrow. To John and Peggy, peace be with you.
Our God is a sustaining God, ready to uphold and reinforce His children when we are weak. For that I give thanks. This past Sunday I could barely find it in me to teach Sunday School. The news of the past two weeks in LA, the issues going on within my church, the worry and fear my sister now daily lives in after she witnessed the brutal murder of one of her coworkers at her job, and the uncertain future that awaits me at my job just really overwhelmed me. As I stood there, I felt absolutely no motivation, no drive whatsoever to deliver my lesson. So I continued to stand there slack-jawed for about 20-30 seconds (felt like minutes) in front of everyone before I asked for a congregation time of prayer. After the prayer I felt somewhat encouraged so I pressed on. About 20 minutes into it I started to get the flow and excitement back.
As I lay awake last night next to my sleeping wife, trying to go to sleep but going over all these things in my mind, I felt my unborn child wriggle and leap. I laid my cheek lightly on Karlene's tummy and felt the little wiggles and kicks. I wanted to stay right there forever, in the energy of that stillness, just like that. Just then a boatload of perspective walloped me over the head. In a world full of so much anger, uncertainty, impotence and injustice, we must not neglect the overwhelming, breathtaking beauty that surrounds us. Because its that beauty that gives us hope: a little peek behind the curtain revealing the divine age to come when everything will be put to rights. It's in the little things we take for granted.
I experienced it again tonight during a game of poker (Hold 'em of course) with my brothers in law (whom I also am privledged to call my dear friends). It was during one of those make-no-sense moments when sheer goofiness just takes over and shared laughter fills the air. How wonderful are those moments and how sad that they are truly so rare.
Its also in the satisfaction you get after a day's hard work where even though you're tired and maybe even frustrated, you have that wonderful feeling that you accomplished something, you did something well.
Yes, life is hard. Sin sucks indeed. But blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. To paraphrase Phillip Yancey, "Life is hard, God is merciful, and the age to come is sure". Those three things we can take to the bank, and in the meanwhile be sure to fully indulge yourself in those fleeting but amazing foretastes of the resurrection to come.
Joyful news! John and Peggy, the couple from MS who are visiting our church, have reported that all of their family are safe and accounted for. In addition their home has sustained only minor damage. We are thankful for the good news even though we will miss the wonderful fellowship they have brought to our fellowship as they head home tomorrow. To John and Peggy, peace be with you.
Our God is a sustaining God, ready to uphold and reinforce His children when we are weak. For that I give thanks. This past Sunday I could barely find it in me to teach Sunday School. The news of the past two weeks in LA, the issues going on within my church, the worry and fear my sister now daily lives in after she witnessed the brutal murder of one of her coworkers at her job, and the uncertain future that awaits me at my job just really overwhelmed me. As I stood there, I felt absolutely no motivation, no drive whatsoever to deliver my lesson. So I continued to stand there slack-jawed for about 20-30 seconds (felt like minutes) in front of everyone before I asked for a congregation time of prayer. After the prayer I felt somewhat encouraged so I pressed on. About 20 minutes into it I started to get the flow and excitement back.
As I lay awake last night next to my sleeping wife, trying to go to sleep but going over all these things in my mind, I felt my unborn child wriggle and leap. I laid my cheek lightly on Karlene's tummy and felt the little wiggles and kicks. I wanted to stay right there forever, in the energy of that stillness, just like that. Just then a boatload of perspective walloped me over the head. In a world full of so much anger, uncertainty, impotence and injustice, we must not neglect the overwhelming, breathtaking beauty that surrounds us. Because its that beauty that gives us hope: a little peek behind the curtain revealing the divine age to come when everything will be put to rights. It's in the little things we take for granted.
I experienced it again tonight during a game of poker (Hold 'em of course) with my brothers in law (whom I also am privledged to call my dear friends). It was during one of those make-no-sense moments when sheer goofiness just takes over and shared laughter fills the air. How wonderful are those moments and how sad that they are truly so rare.
Its also in the satisfaction you get after a day's hard work where even though you're tired and maybe even frustrated, you have that wonderful feeling that you accomplished something, you did something well.
Yes, life is hard. Sin sucks indeed. But blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted. To paraphrase Phillip Yancey, "Life is hard, God is merciful, and the age to come is sure". Those three things we can take to the bank, and in the meanwhile be sure to fully indulge yourself in those fleeting but amazing foretastes of the resurrection to come.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Devastation
"Or who shut in the sea with doors
when it burst out from the womb,
when I made clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
and prescribed limits for it
and set bars and doors,
and said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stayed'?
- Job 38:8-11
It's really hard to get a handle on the widespread death and destruction in LA and MS all the way over here in sunny CA. You hear about the streets flooded with water mingled with sewage and vermin not to mention the bodies of those who have perished. When the flood waters recede whole swaths of roads, bridges and highways will have been washed away making traveling to work pretty near impossible. Now throw in the looting and gunfire and you have a land that is going to be uninhabitable for some time to come.
We have a couple visiting from MS who have been attending our church for a couple of months now while the wife takes care of her ailing mother in CA. Thay have been unable to get in touch with their family back there and they are worried sick as you can imagine.
I know it goes without saying or asking but please continue to intercede for the couple at my church (Peggy and John) as well as all the people affected down there and that God will bring good from this terrible tragedy speedily.
when it burst out from the womb,
when I made clouds its garment
and thick darkness its swaddling band,
and prescribed limits for it
and set bars and doors,
and said, 'Thus far shall you come, and no farther,
and here shall your proud waves be stayed'?
- Job 38:8-11
It's really hard to get a handle on the widespread death and destruction in LA and MS all the way over here in sunny CA. You hear about the streets flooded with water mingled with sewage and vermin not to mention the bodies of those who have perished. When the flood waters recede whole swaths of roads, bridges and highways will have been washed away making traveling to work pretty near impossible. Now throw in the looting and gunfire and you have a land that is going to be uninhabitable for some time to come.
We have a couple visiting from MS who have been attending our church for a couple of months now while the wife takes care of her ailing mother in CA. Thay have been unable to get in touch with their family back there and they are worried sick as you can imagine.
I know it goes without saying or asking but please continue to intercede for the couple at my church (Peggy and John) as well as all the people affected down there and that God will bring good from this terrible tragedy speedily.
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