Miss California slammed

Keith Lewis of the Miss USA pageant said "religious beliefs have no politics in the Miss California family." Anyone want to break that statement down for me? GEEEEZZZZZZZZ!!!! Thought police.

What if Google was REALLY slow?

You click. You wait. You click "stop". Refresh. Close. Reboot. Kick. Yell. Call IT? Try a different search engine. Yell again. Scream. Is this speed measured by a baud rate? ARGH?!!?! The answers aren't there!

Interesting in looking at the lives of Joseph and David, they both went through a considerable period in their early adult lives waiting for what God had foretold. In the case of Joseph, after having those "everybody's going to bow to me" dreams, he had to go through years of slavery and prison before that was realized. David gets annointed king but has to run around the wilderness hiding in caves, running for his life for a decade or so. Patience and faith. Patience for God's timing. Faith that He will do as He says and desires.

So click and wait...just keep the right frame of mind.

’Tis so sweet to trust in Jesus,
And to take Him at His Word;
Just to rest upon His promise,
And to know, “Thus says the Lord!”

Jesus, Jesus, how I trust Him!
How I’ve proved Him o’er and o’er
Jesus, Jesus, precious Jesus!
O for grace to trust Him more!

O how sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just to trust His cleansing blood;
And in simple faith to plunge me
’Neath the healing, cleansing flood!

Yes, ’tis sweet to trust in Jesus,
Just from sin and self to cease;
Just from Jesus simply taking
Life and rest, and joy and peace.

I’m so glad I learned to trust Thee,
Precious Jesus, Savior, Friend;
And I know that Thou art with me,
Wilt be with me to the end.

Danger, danger, danger

I stumbled upon Soren Kierkegaard while studying the book of Ruth. The author of the book I was reading ("Faithful God", by Sinclair Ferguson) quoted him in noting that what we really believe about God is reflected in how we live, how we respond to challenges, crises, and trials.

"The greatest danger for a child, where religion is concerned
The greatest danger is not that his father or tutor should be a free-thinker, not even his being a hypocrite. No, the danger lies in his being a pious, God-fearing man, and in the child being convinced thereof, but that he should nevertheless notice that deep in his soul there lies hidden an unrest which, consequently, not even the fear of God and piety could calm. The danger is that the child in this situation is almost provoked to draw a conclusion about God, that God is not infinite love."

Good stuff. But when I read a little more. Boy this guy was a thinker. Amazing that the heart of man really never changes. More stuff from this guy, any relevance to today?

Secularised "Church" congregations are meaningless: The idea of congregations keeps individuals as children since Christians are disinclined from taking the initiative to take responsibility for their own relation to God. Kierkegaard stresses that "Christianity is the individual, here, the single individual. When individuals are faithful, congregational life is a natural and meaningful existence."

The prime years

Today I'm 37. Am I in my prime? There has been my debate about what the prime years are. Is it the teen years? The 20's? The golden years. Actually, it's pretty simple, in my expected life expectancy, there's 21 prime years, and I'm in one of them. It started at 2, then 3, then 5, then 7. I never really understood until now, but now that I do...gosh darnit, I'm going to embrace it. Odd as it may be (certainly not even), I've only got about 9 of these left.

Mathematically dilemma of life: Does a + b always equal c?

Am I being illogical in assuming life is logical? My mind wants to assume that the left side of the equation should always equal the right (and vice versa). Take this to it's logical conclusion, and the actions/events of life lead to results, and the results are the summation of actions/events. Call me simplistic, but I'm not the only one...and I guarantee you do it too.

There was recently a shooting here in Danville, not exactly your high crime community. Put this in the logicameter ... (drugs + bad choices) = shooting/death. Easy peesy, lemon squeezy. I'm sure I could add to the actions/events with more facts, but what is more lacking and unknown is the result, the right side in this equation.

I suppose these are the "when God doesn't make sense moments" in life. When we see the answer and yet fail to understand. Why did so-and-so get taken so soon? Why am I blessed/cursed in situation x when I've done y? I don't always understand, and when I do, perhaps I don't.

So, I leave you with this, from William Cowper, "God moves in mysterious ways"
"His purposes will ripen fast,
Unfolding ev'ry hour;
The bud may have a bitter taste,
But sweet will be the flow'r."

Dances with death

It's something we realize and I don't know any who wouldn't agree....death is inches, if not millimeters away. No matter how young or old, it could come anytime. Some have experienced it much closer than I...friends and family taken before their time. Though it's in my head, I don't know that I really comprehend how close it really is...it takes reminders to have it sink in.

Last year, Dash just about ran in front of a car in Hawaii. It was a blind alley; I watched it unfold in slow motion. Him running, car screeching, stomach dropping. No matter how fast he can run, it wouldn't have been fast enough. Wouldn't have been anybody's fault, the car should've slowed (the mom was obviously in hurry), Dash shouldn't have been running there, Mr. Incredible should have stopped him. But it wouldn't have mattered. He would have been gone.

Last night, while I was enjoying a fire and Wonder Woman was sleeping next to me. Dash swallowed a marble, or should I say, partially swallowed a marble. At breakfast he commented while eating his cereal, "My throat hurts a little bit...it's because of the marble I swallowed last night." From what I can gather, he was tossing it in his bed...and missed. I gather he managed to cough it up, he said he "made a little noise" while getting it up. Another close call.

So, suffice to say, some kids make it more exciting than others. But the reminder is close to home. God in His grace keeps us going. The thought of losing my kids or others close to me is hard to bear, yet the realization of His sustaining their lives gives me great joy. Thank you God for another day...it's never boring.

Yes I am still here

Likely most of my readership is gone by the wayside, but that's OK. Facebook has gotten some of my time, and I honestly don't know where my brain has gone, but it seems to be emptier than normal.

Anyhow, one interesting phenomenon in parenting is trying to instill things into your children that you don't have. Pick one...discipline, compassion, patience, gentleness.... I find personally that discipline is pretty high on my list. I'm an action guy, I like the exciting times...activities that move... but I'm not so good when it comes to disciplining myself to get better, especially in the mundane. You can go to a certain point on instinct and raw ability, in fact pretty far if you've got the knack...but to become good or great, you've got to have the discipline.

In parenting, yes...each child is their own. And yes, they constantly surprise me with their abilities, many of which I don't have. But...I cringe when I see the nagging traits repeating themselves. Luckily they get the good stuff too I guess :-)

So in the New Year, a repeating mantra to self. Do not be satisfied with the previous status quo. Fail and fail again. But never give up. How much more powerful the lesson to succeed when failure has been repeated over (and over) again. And share those victories (and failures) with your kids...it's good for them to know you fail too.