Buffalo Roam

Buffalo Roam
Originally uploaded by A Bob's Life in Pictures.

I found this picture at here, and I just had to post it. The article is at the same site. How would you like to be the police officer responding to this call?!?

Three More Saving Days

Friday is the day! It is THE day! It is the DAY! IT is the day! It IS the day!

Tiger gets officially released!! I've already preordered (thanks to that educational discount for making it affordable), but I'm still hoping to hit the Lyndhurst, OH Apple Store Friday night. It's pretty close to my Grandma's place (right down the street from their old house that we went to for the first 25 years of life), so I know where to go. My brother's family might be interested in popping in as well. They're thinking seriously about getting a Mac mini, and Friday night will be a great night to do that. Soooo...if you've thought about getting a Mac, Friday night, Apple Stores around the world, BE THERE!!!

Another Crazy Week

After surviving two crazy weeks, I'm moving into my third in a row. I started out with a workshop in Springfield, IL (3 hours away) and a social at church for Nathan's pre-school program. PTL for car pooling!! I was able to get some school work done and a bunch of other reading as well.

In the midst of that, we have a serious potential buyer for the house I've been working on, less than a week after the health department used it as the backdrop for their April press conference. WooHoo!! Throw in two offers for positions of leadership in two different settings (both are very cool requests, so I've got some serious thinking/praying to do) and a short work week as we travel to Cleveland on Thursday, and this week is going out of control very quickly. I do have a couple of other things that arer being worked on in the background of all this as well, so life is REALLY crazy right now.

I have to confess that I didn't enjoy the workshop yesterday at all and I felt like my time could have been better used elsewhere. I'm taking a series of classes for work, and this class will be online. Yesterday's workshop was an orientation for that online class. Since I'm already in an online class, and I'm (barely) above average with computers, the orientation was pretty useless for me. I did get some school work done, though, so it wasn't a total loss.

I'm hoping to get a little time away next week to figure out what's going on and stop to breathe a little. April is always a bit on the crazy side of life, so getting into May will be a good thing.

Will the Emerging Church Emerge?

Frank Viola asks this question in an open letter to the emerging church conversation. He compliments the "phenomenon" for several reasons, but goes on to ask some very important questions. I highly recommend the post, though it is long, as it brings out some very important questions from someone who is supportive of the current ideas.

Psalm 42

Heard a lesson this morning focused on this passage. It really hit home. When times are tough and overwhelming, God is still the only One who we can depend on. It seems that David was running from his own son, Absollom, when this was written. Can you even imagine how overwhelming it must have been to be living in fear of his own child, who he also desperately loved? When David's army battled his son's army, David sat at the gate of Jerusalem waiting for word about his son. When he found out that his army had won, and his son had been killed, he was distraught beyond human comfort. What a horrible way to win a war. Psalm 42 reflects on David as he was being hunted by his son. He could no longer worship God publicly with other people. He was alone and on the run, fearing the one he loved. When people would question him, it was along the lines of "Where is your God?" David was desperate to be close to God, yet he had to lean on God without the help of anyone else. Isn't that true of all of us when we face significant trials?

Face Time on the News

This morning I took part in a news conference with the county health department. I'm part of a coalition that is promoting housing that is safe from lead paint. This is a HUGE issue, but very few people recognize it. For example, did you know that a federal rule requires that a contractor who is going to disturb paint in a house that was built before 1978 MUST give the homeowner a brochure on the risks of lead paint? When is the last time you heard of any contractor doing that? The EPA has not enforced the rule, but has allowed it to stay on the books. The advantage of having that rule on the books is that local enforcement agencies can go after violating contractors when a child is found to have high lead levels. The EPA is now looking at making the rule voluntary. This would take a very important enforcement tool away from local public health agencies.

We held the news conference at a house that my employer is rehabbing. We will have to have a lead clearance when the work is complete. It was a great place to have the news conference as it is an example of the work necessary to get a home lead safe. I ended up getting face time on the tv news because one of the stations showed up late, so they needed to interview someone in order to get some audio from the event. They ended up using my interview, so that was cool. One of the other stations also showed the event throughtout the evening and gave a plug for my employer, also a very cool thing. I only wish that people understood how important this issue is. When the local CBS station (which gave me face time) ended the piece they mentioned that 254 children have been found to have lead poisoning in the last five years. Unfortunately lead poisoning is a lot like drunk driving. At what point is a person impaired by their condition? Children can have lead levels that are not considered "poisoned," but still suffer serious effects from the lead in their system. There have been hundreds of additional children who have been found to have lead in their systems, just not enough to be called "poisoned." Yet many really were.

Why It's Great To Be A Guy

I wasn't quite sure what to expect when I saw that Joe Missionary had posted this, but it is a funny look at life. A couple items come off as humorous, but still make the point that we live in an unjust world. I guess if you don't laugh, you'll cry.

Edit: Rachel Responds.

Saved by Wireless Internet

Last night was the big annual fundraiser for my employer. It's our annual banquet held at Cliffbreakers (who do an outstanding job every year!). I was asked to hook up our brand new projector to our brand new laptop for my boss's Powerpoint presentation. Let me say, first off, that I made a few fundamental mistakes. When I installed Office on this computer last week, I assumed that entering the 25 digit registration number for one piece of Office software was enough. Second, I assumed that everything would work just fine when I plugged in the CD with the presentation. I had entered the Big Number last week when firing up Access. I did not fire up Powerpoint until I got the disk, at 4:00 yesterday afternoon--a very BIG mistake. When Powerpoint popped up, it wanted that 25 digit number that I had entered last week for Access. I ran back to the office to get that number. I entered it. Rejected. I entered it a second time. Rejected. I double checked what I had just entered. It was right. I entered it a third time (what's the definition of insanity?). Rejected. I went home and got my Mac mini. I hooked it up and all was good, until I inserted the disk. Disk burned to non-standard format, the mini couldn't read it. Hmmm...

Ah yes, wireless internet access since the restaurant is connected to a hotel. Inserted disk into laptop, fired up my .mac account and uploaded the presentation to my .mac "hard drive." Went back to the mini. Synced my .mac account, downloaded the presentation. All was good. I got to eat dinner after all!!! Only took a couple of hours to get the Powerpoint presentation on the screen!

My conclusion: a Mac mini with wireless support is the best computer buy on earth. Oh yeah, and get a .mac account with it, it'll save your job someday!

Purge Sundays

Ask the folks who simply show up in church without doing anything to leave. Now there's a thought.

Personality Driven Churches

churchmarketingsucks.com posted some thoughts on "personality-driven" churches. Doesn't it seem that a lot of churches work at getting a "big name" pastor in order to drive up attendance? Churches could be much more effective at driving up attendance if they actually did something outside of their property (besides giving money to people who actually are doing something). One of the biggest problems within the church is that we are so busy "doing church" that we don't have time to be the church. By depending on the name of a pastor, churches are abdicating their fundamental role, being salt (a preservative of good things) and light (exposing evil) in the world.

Powerful statement of the post? "If the church is not being built to last for generations to come, then what is it being built for?" I'd add to that the idea that it must be effective for generations to come. There are churches that just sustain for decades, but outside of the families that make up those churches, no one is affected at all. These churches aren't salt and light, but a fortress.

Most importantly, what kind of church do you attend? Is it a fortress? Is it driven by personality? Is it designed for long term success in winning people to Christ and changing the world?

DA Carson and the Emerging Church

Dr. Carson, a prof at my denomination's seminary, will be releasing a book on the Emerging Church in a couple of months. In anticipation of this, Andrew Jones has posted a few blog entries. Interestingly, it seems that Dr. Carson has not spent a lot of time reading the blogs of Emerging Church leaders, and that's where the vast majority of the discussion is taking place. A number of people are basing their opinions of the Emerging discussion on the few books by Brian McLaren. McLaren is one small voice in the discussion. The bloggers are actually carrying a lot of the discussion. This is a good thing. The bloggers are public and can be held accountable in a public way. That level of accountability is important. The bloggers post regularly, helping the discussion move forward quickly and still be open along the way. In short, check out Jones' open blog entry to Dr. Carson. Note that Dr. Carson doesn't respond. This means that he either doesn't know about it (which is sad since Jones is one of the leading Emerging bloggers) or he doesn't want to take the time (meaning that his criticisms are meant to be critical, not profitable).

Earth Calendar

I just discovered the Earth Calendar. This site lists holidays from all over the world. Very interesting stuff. For example, I just learned that April 26th is Confederate Memorial Day in the US. I had never heard of that. I also learned that the only other holiday in the world that day is in Tanzania. Its called Union Day.

Who planned that?!?

May 1st, aka May Day, Labor Day, and Labour Day (those crazy Brits) are celebrated all over the world. Of course, in the US it's Save the Rhino Day.

Who's crazy now?!?

Fortieth Anniversary

Yep, tomorrow (which is almost here) is the 40th anniversary of the Ford Mustang!! I was hanging out at the teammacosx forums where they post a special highlight for each day of the year. Due to international participation, they usually post a new highlight a few hours in advance of my day change. Tomorrow's highlight is there, and it commemorates this great day in automobile history.

The Tiger Roars!

Microsoft Monitor is giving Apple Computer a huge edge over Microsoft on the operating system front (Mac OSX vs. Windows) with the upcoming release of Apple's Tiger (coming to a store near you on April 29th). Some of the items that Microsoft has been touting for their next operating system (originally due a couple of years ago, but now due next year at the soonest) have been dropped, but Apple is already including them in Tiger. The search features in Tiger are supposed to be awesome, and RSS is being added to Safari (the Apple web browser--I'd say its equivalent to Internet Explorer, but none of the web browsers out there are that bad). Hey, maybe I'll even switch back to Safari with that addition--who am I kidding, I love Firefox! Still, Apple is showing some serious new features that will make Windows users drool, and they will all be built into the new operating system. So, to those of you who have already switched, congrats, and check out Tiger as soon as you get the chance. To those of you using Windows? I'm sorry. :)

Nathan's Special Legs

I took a measurement of Nathan's thighs this evening. He has always had legs that were solid muscle and bigger than normal. Tonight his thigh measured 15" in circumference. If you recall, this is a boy who is almost 3 1/2 years old. To give you a sense of the size, my thighs are 25" in circumference, and my forearm at its largest point is 13" in circumference, and I'm 6'3" and 250 lbs. Needless to say, we talked about how he can use his "special legs" to please God. God has obviously given him a very special gift with his legs, so he needs to learn how to please God with his legs.

Nathan loves to run. Even though he weighs more than a lot of kindergarteners, he can still keep up with a lot of five year olds in a running race. Someday we'll have to rent Chariots of Fire. We have a lifetime of teaching Nathan how to please God with those "special legs."

Originally posted at The Dad's Group.

Ray is Right

I was just watching a few minutes of Oprah as she was interviewing Ray Romano of Everybody Loves Raymond. Apparently the show is coming to an end, based on the screen behind Oprah and Ray (can you tell I watch it?). During the few minutes of the interview that I caught, Oprah made a comment about Ray being one of the greatest TV dads of all time. Romano replied, "That's a sad statement." Romano then commented a few seconds later that people come up to him all the time and say that his character on the show is just like their husband, brother, dad, etc. He again said that that was a sad commentary. Everyone, including Oprah, laughed. That was too bad. She should have pursued it (maybe she will before the show is over, but I'm not watching anymore). Romano is absolutely correct. I loved that show when if first came on, but after a year or two of watching Romano's character make the same stupid mistakes over and over, I quit watching. Romano's character is one in a long line of modern sitcom dads who is an oaf (Tim Taylor of Tool Time comes to mind as well). Sitcoms have become the place to make fathers look pathetic, and Romano knows it. The fact that people think of sitcom dads as being just like their dad/husband/brother is truly a sad commentary on the state of men today. For the record, I would be offended if someone compared me to Romano's character. My father is nothing like that. My brother is nothing like that. In fact, I can think of very few men I know who are like Romano's character. I'm proud to be able to say that. Thanks, Ray, for being honest. Your credibility went up a notch in my book. It's too bad you weren't able to expand on your statement while I was watching your interview.

Tomorrow, Tomorrow!

Tomorrow will be a crazy day. I'm starting my day with an interview for a potential restaurant manager. We'll then talk to someone else who may buy the restaurant, then I'll go out to a fancy restaurant for lunch. It's the annual luncheon for the Rockford Area Affordable Housing Coalition. Should be a good time there. After that I'll close up our restaurant and go home (usually takes a while). Our oven went out yesterday, so our sales will be way down tomorrow. Our sandwiches aren't nearly as good if they don't get heated up. Still, with the cold front today, soup is a great option, and we've got some of the best soup around. Hopefully the oven will be back by the end of the day tomorrow. Definitely need it back by opening on Thursday!! Needless to say, its been a pretty high stress week on the restaurant front.

On a good note, we received a new projector and laptop via a grant from our neighborhood bank. We got an InFocus projector that can work off of a USB memory stick (very cool!) and a Toshiba laptop. I must say that I'm very impressed with the laptop. Our cost will be about $600 after rebates. For that price we got a 15" screen, Wi-Fi, and a combo drive. I've been working with it for a couple days to get it set up and get the necessary software installed. My first attempt at using the Wi-Fi was last night here at home. It fired right up and I was able to log onto our wireless network very easily and quickly. Gotta hand it to Apple, their Airport Express is an awesome little gadget, and it works very easily with a Windows XP computer. I also learned that my home network has better security than our work Wi-Fi (WPA vs. WEP). I wasn't sure what we had at work, so I'm a little disappointed, but WEP is better than nothing, which is what most people have in their homes (very BAD idea!). Ah well, I must give kudos to Toshiba for producing a very nice laptop. I will be enjoying it!

Apple Blog for the Day

Today was the announcement from Apple. Mac OSX 10.4, aka Tiger, will be released on April 29th, 17 days from now. Rockford doesn't have an Apple Store, so I won't be waiting in line at midnight. Of course, I may have it already. Yep, I placed my online order today. The educational discount is outstanding, so I'll be upgrading for $70 instead of $100. Not bad. I don't think I'll touch my work computer, though. Apple's ability to log into the Active Directory in Windows 2003 Server hasn't been very impressive, and I can't risk breaking ADmitMac. Thus, I won't upgrade in the office.

In other Apple news, I saw that this week's free song giveaway is by Relient K! The iTunes Music Store, Apple's online music store (and the most popular online music store in the world), gives away a free song every week (starting on Tuesdays). They are often little known or outdated artists, so I have generally passed on the opportunity to build my music library for free. Today, however, was the start of a week of Relient K giveaways. Excellent!! Since it's from the only album I don't have, it was a no brainer to pick it up. I've been pretty happy with my recent music additions, what with the Pepsi promo and all. I've been able to add a couple of albums to our collection (Nathan is very happy about the Mary Poppins album in our system!). Anyway, if you haven't already checked out the iTunes Music Store, its the only place we buy music anymore. You can download iTunes software (a jukebox software) that gives you access to the store at the Apple website. Setting up an account is simple, and the Relient K song is a freebie this week, so download away!!

What Christian Tradition Defines You Best?

Joe Missionary pointed me to a new quiz. This one is a good precursor to some thoughts I've had recently. First, here are my results:

1: Methodist/Wesleyan/Nazarene (100%)
2: Baptist (Reformed/Particular/Calvinistic) (97%)
3: Congregational/United Church of Christ (94%)
4: Presbyterian/Reformed (89%)
5: Anglican/Episcopal/Church of England (79%)
6: Eastern Orthodox (76%)
7: Anabaptist (Mennonite/Quaker etc.) (66%)
8: Baptist (non-Calvinistic)/Plymouth Brethren/Fundamentalist (66%)
9: Lutheran (64%)
10: Pentecostal/Charismatic/Assemblies of God (61%)
11: Church of Christ/Campbellite (56%)
12: Seventh-Day Adventist (46%)
13: Roman Catholic (41%)

My recent thoughts were started here. I've had them building for a while, so I'll air out a few more in this post.

First, let me just say that my quiz results reflect the fact that I am not a theologian. I'm probably becoming more and more of an UN-theologian. Why? Theologians are too opinionated.

There are some people who have invested tons of time and energy into studying the Scriptures and theology. Many of them have an outstanding grasp of who God is and what the Bible teaches. Unfortunately there are many in this group who seem to have skipped over John 15:17 and I John 4. It seems to reach the point where some act as though "they will know we are Christians by our" theology.

I was recently told of a great deal of tension in a local church, and that tension is occuring between leaders of the church. Most of it has its basis in theological debates. At what point is love more important than theology? The answer is actually quite simple, at every point. Our purpose in life should be to show love. Even in disagreement. If there is tension between two people then there is a lack of love somewhere in that relationship.

My two cents.

Election Day

Tuesday was election day, but I haven't had time to comment on it, so here it goes. Up for election was the mayor, aldermen, school board seats, and various other seats that no one really cares about. Our mayor lost. Its the first time since the mid-70's that a mayor has lost a re-election bid. It's also the first time that a first term mayor lost since 1957.

It wasn't a close election. Larry Morrissey, who was also making his second run for office, won the election handily. He pulled in 55% of the vote. Not bad for an independent! Four years ago he came in third with 25% of the vote. I felt, at that time, that he would have gotten more votes if people didn't vote "practically." By that I mean that there are a number of people who think they are wasting their vote if they vote for someone who "doesn't have a chance." Two family members voted that way four years ago, that's why they had voted for our outgoing mayor, Doug Scott. I figured that Morrissey would have a great shot the next time around because he pulled in far more votes than people expected, so people were more likely to take him seriously this time. Sure enough, he worked hard and had a solid majority even though it was a three-way race.

Doug Scott, the outgoing Democratic mayor, made a great legislator. He didn't make a great mayor. He seemed to be continuing in legislator mode rather than shifting his mind-set to that of the executive branch of government. His administration also seemed to assume that they'd have as much time as they wanted, so they never moved very quickly on anything. The City now owns a lot of big properties near downtown, but they've owned them for a couple years, spent tons of money "studying" them, but there is nothing in the pipeline. Morrissey has promised to dump the casino idea, dump the convention center idea (like Rockford has much to offer conventioneers anyway), and focus on education and basic rebuilding of downtown.

The Republican candidate, Gloria Cardenas Cudia, was there so the Republicans could say that someone ran. There really isn't much else to say about that part of the race. Her 4% tally showed that.

So, what do I expect? Morrissey seems to dislike having "poor" folks around. He was a primary leader in the opposition to a large redevelopment in downtown, even though he says that's the part of town he loves. Why did he oppose the redevelopment of one of the largest and most prominent buildings along the river? Because there would have been income restrictions on many of the apartments. Those restrictions would have meant that a family of four could not make more than $46,000 per year in order to live there. That's right. The tax credits would have allowed someone earning 80% of the area median income to live there, and that means $46,000/year for a family of four. Morrissey doesn't want people like me living in his neighborhood. We're a family of four. We make less than $46,000/year. We have three college degrees and have partial work on a Master's Degree, but we're not good enough to live near the incoming mayor.

That's pretty cynical, but I still voted for him. I don't have very high expectations for how he'll treat people who don't bring in the bucks, but he'll at least try to bring jobs to the area. Mayor Scott didn't even seem to do that. The night I decided to vote for Morrissey was when they announced that a UPS Hub expansion would go to the hub in Louisville. It didn't bother me that Rockford didn't get it nearly as much as City Hall saying that they were still working on a package to present to UPS. If the people at City Hall who are supposed to be doing economic development don't know when their applications are due, then they are incompetent. If they didn't care then they are worthless in their jobs. If they had a good reason to not try then they should have said that, but they didn't. They left us with the assumption that they are either incompetent or they just don't care. Neither of those impressions gets a mayor re-elected. There are quite a few folks who are sharpening up their resumès these days, and justifiably so. City Hall needs some cleaning out, and Morrissey was elected to do that. We'll see what has happened when four years are up.

Boys Visit The Doctor

Today we visited a new allergist. We felt like we learned more in a couple hours than we had learned in the last three years. Isaac was tested much more thoroughly than he had before since it was he is two now. Nathan got the prick test, which will give us much better results than he had had previously. Both boys then got to have blood drawn later for some further testing. All in all, they spent about half the day in medical offices. They did a great job. Very little complaining or crying. Nathan didn't cry at all, even when they drew blood. Isaac only cried when a needle hit him. He did have a more serious reaction to the prick tests than we had seen him have before. We're thinking it was due to the peanut test. His face started getting rashy and slightly swollen. He had never been exposed to peanuts before, so we were surprised at the reaction. Once all the tests results are in, we'll go back for more consultation. In the meantime, they'll be on some medication every day primarily to see how it affects them. I ended up working only half a day, which was fine with me. I'm still functioning in the exhausted mode. Gotta love the restaurant business (not!).

And People Like This Guy?!?

Our local school superintendent recently told a group of grant monitors from the state and federal levels that they should call before they show up to monitor progress from programs funded by the state and feds. Now the school district has lost a $680,000 grant for reading improvement. People think this guy is going to save the district by trying to stomp on the teachers' union and throwing away grant money?!? Sorry folks, this guy is going to leave the district in far worse shape than he found it in (which wasn't very good). If you're not willing to fire him now, it'll be too late when you do.

Of course, he wanted to lose the grant because it doesn't line up with his curriculum plans. As a former teacher I would just like to go on the record as saying that forcing all teachers to use the same curriculum is STUPID!! Teachers are at their best when they teach in a style that they are comfortable with. I worked with some outstanding teachers who used teaching methods I wouldn't touch. Those methods worked for them because they fit the teacher's style. They didn't work for me because they didn't fit my style. Of course, Rockford wasn't the only district to lose this grant. "In Illinois, the only other district to lose the money is Pembroke — but that’s because reading scores have improved so much that the district isn’t eligible." Oh wait, we wouldn't want to have that "problem!"

MLK

Today marks the anniversary of King's assassination. The Daily Dig has their memorial here.

Questions about the Mac

A good friend found out a couple weeks ago that I'm a Mac guy. He was surprised and very impressed. Today I found out why. He asked Jill if he could interrupt us between the services at church to ask me some Mac questions. Turns out that he is fed up with Microsoft. Since he's the IT guy for a small company, he knows a thing or two about computers, something I had just learned recently. He is sick of paying too much money for software when there are free versions out there with almost as much functionality. He's planning to get a Mac and run OpenOffice in place of MS Office. His goal is to make it completely Microsoft free. I'm not a big fan of MS (if that wasn't already obvious), but I'm not so opposed to MS as to keep my computer completely MS free. Every now and then I even use the MS Office that I have on my Macs at home (but its very rare). I use MS Office on my Mac at work a lot. I never fire up Internet Exploder though. That's just a waste of software. I won't use it even on the Windows machines at work. Its just too dangerous to use it on the internet, and there really isn't much other use for it.

During the course of our conversation, we started talking about OEM software. I'm not sure what OEM stands for, but its software that comes with your computer (such as Windows or Office) and it is only licensed for use on the computer that it comes with. That's right. You actually think that you buy software when you buy a new computer, but you don't. You are only allowed to use it on that computer, and if you upgrade, too bad. My friend had some VERY strong feelings about this practice. It really isn't fair to computer buyers, but most don't know the difference.

Anyway, my friend is very excited by the thought of getting a Mac. He views it as his own personal way of getting back at Microsoft for foisting overpriced software on him and his company. I'm always happy to help someone get a Mac, the more the merrier!

Is the Emerging Church a Threat to the Gospel?

The first post of the two part series is here.

The second post of the two part series is here.

QuickVerse for Mac

That's right, one of the best selling titles in Bible software is finally coming to Mac OS X, and in native Mac OS X, no less, not one of those cheap ports that don't make it worth the investment.

Free Will Discussion

Joe Missionary had his weekly "Theological Thursday" and brought up the whole discussion of free will. Its a very interesting discussion, as usual. Check it out, add comments, think hard.

Abbott and Costello on Buying a Computer

MacnJesus.net has a funny post that's a take on the old "Who's on First" routine.

Illini Win!

WooHoo!! The Illini won the first game of the Final Four! They played very well during the second half. They were pretty bad the first half, focusing on three-point shots when they weren't hitting them. Roger Powell, Jr. definitely deserved MVP of the game, he tore it up in the second half. Great game, Powell, and congrats. You earned it!!

Apple Adopts Windows Media for iPod!

Check it out here, oh, and read the comments. :)

Who's the Bigot?

Pat Buchanan was splattered with salad dressing during a speech by a student who yelled, "Stop the bigotry!" Um, who's the bigot? I'm not a big fan of Buchanan's, but if you can't debate a point on merit, sit down and shut up. Trying to humiliate someone only shows people what a fool you are. Stupid move by a stupid person.

Oh, and Buchanan didn't press felony charges, though he could have.

Daily Dig

Today's Daily Dig said:

A Flip Side

Johann Christoph Arnold

In past centuries, warfare, famine, and disease decimated whole towns and cities, and sooner or later every family was touched by death. As writer Philip Yancey has pointed out, "No one could live as if it did not exist." Nowadays, thanks to improved nutrition, public sanitation, greater life expectancy, and medical technology, death no longer seems such an unavoidable reality. Indeed, we have largely removed it from our day-to-day experience. But there is a flip side: we have also lost the ability to accept the end of life when it does finally come.

Will you be ready when the time comes to let go?

Source: "Be Not Afraid: Overcoming the Fear of Death"


Boy, is that the truth or what?!?

Very Interesting Request

I just received a phone call from the headquarters of my church's denomination asking if I'd be willing to edit a post I made back in October. It seems that a person who had spoken at my church is trying to take a low profile (I didn't ask for details, but I suspect he's in or going to be in Muslim countries at some point), and my post apparently gave a few more details about the person than he wanted to see (I think it just had his job title). It also happened to be in the top 15 sites if someone Googled this person's name. Anyway, it was easier to delete the post than go back and edit it, and the post was over 6 months old anyway, so it wasn't a big deal. Still, I was a bit surprised at the request.

For the Free Speech advocates out there, I know what you're thinking, and I don't care.