Y’know, if you watch the link to Leno (him “interupting” himself above) Kanye sounds very remorseful! A grown, famous, rich, powerful, man almost brought to tears out of shame and remorse…THAT is something you don’t see everyday! HATS off to Mr West!!
I am staring a new journey, so I created a new blog, it just sounded like the right thing to do!
My Boss is asking me to study and pass the CISSP exam. He is paying for me to take the exam too. The CISSP certification is a pretty big deal. It will mean more pay in the long run. It is every bit as valuable as a 4-year degree. Three team members in my network security group studied and passed the CISSP exam already. One was my boss. I have 10 weeks to prepare. One week is already over. To show my commitment, I quit my second job. Yeah, I know right?
This is a shout out to all my Christian brothers and sisters…please contact http://www.doveworld.org/contact and lovingly ask them to take their hateful, anti-Islam signs down. Spread the word (I posted to Facebook too). The full news story is below.
What I sent:
I am a New Testament, Charismatic, Nazarene. Please take your sign down. The message that you send is that God hates Muslims. If you really wish to reach out to the world then please also reach out to Muslims. Love and accept Muslims into your church to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ so that they can be transformed. Please don’t alienate them. Please be a seeker of peace and reconciliation.
Story:http://www.wftv.com/news/20001118/detail.html
Posted: 7:22 am EDT July 9, 2009Updated: 7:28 am EDT July 9, 2009
GAINSEVILLE, Fla. — A Gainesville, Florida church has a shocking anti-Islam sign on its front lawn and says it is going to put up more.
The sign at the Dove World Outreach Center reads “Islam is of the devil.”
City code enforcement says the case is still under investigation and the sign does not violate any ordinances. However, residents say they want the sign to come down.
“I think it’s all stereotypical about the whole Iraq war. People think all Muslims are like that and we’re not,” said Gaby Alim, Muslim resident.
Someone tried to spray paint over the sign, but the church quickly fixed it. The church is already making plans to put up even more signs.
Copyright 2009 by wftv.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
I love listening to NPR’s This American Life. Here is an expert from an episode I recently listened to entitled Plan B:
There’s the thing you plan to do, and then there’s the thing you end up doing. Most of us start off our lives with some Plan A which we abandon…switching to a Plan B, which becomes our life.
I had a Plan A a very long time ago. I am not only on Plan B, but C, D and maybe even E, F & G.
My Plan A did NOT include:
Working for a local telephone company
Having to work a second job
Constant and persistent collection calls from the student loan folks
Chad Miller and his brother Chris were kayaking last week on a swollen Brandywine Creek in PA when they went over a 4-ft dam and drowned. They found Chris’ body the same day, and found Chad’s body a few days later. It is a great loss. Chad was a dear friend from my teenage years. We were in the same youth group at Oakland Church of the Nazarene in Cedar Rapids, IA. I haven’t talked to him face-to-face in over 15 years and still the loss is great. It is also a milestone of sorts. Besides my grandparents and my dad, Chad is the closest loss that I have yet to experience. It is a milestone I wish I would have never reached.
There are quite a few links to news stories about the accident and links to memorials, but here is a short list:
Oakland Church had a huge youth group. Karen Phillips was the youth pastor. Her dad, Gene Phillips, was the Sr. Pastor. Tom Darland was my Sunday School teacher and is the current youth pastor. We must have had 75-125 kids go through the youth group during my jr. high and sr. high years. At any one time the group was about 30-40 teens. We were a very close-knit family of friends. We took the church and youth group extremely serious. We met Sunday mornings, evenings and Wednesday nights-basically whenever the church doors were open. There were about a half dozen high schools in the area that had kids that met in our youth group. The youth group was everything to me. I had a few close friends at school, but for the most part I was a nobody, a social outcast, a bit of a religious geek. And I didn’t care much about the social scene there. But at youth group, well that was different! I had friends, many, many friends. I was popular. I was a leader. I made life-long friends. We went on youth and mission trips, choir tours and service projects. Youth group was my life. Life was good. And Chad was a big part of that.
I first became friends with Chad very shortly after he joined the youth group. We found out that we shared a love for Bill Cosby’s old stand up records! We recited entire sketches together, laughing our butts off! That was the beginning our our friendship.
Everyone in the youth group loved Chad. He was smart, funny and crazy! Even though Chad was a year behind me, we all looked up to him and wanted to be just like Chad. He skateboarded, we skateboarded. He did crazy things with his hair, we did crazy things to our hair! He rebelled, we rebelled! Chad had blue hair for a bit, and I think Kool-aid red too! As in he used kool-aid! I remember one mission trip to a native-American Indian reservation near Wounded Knee. We were really roughing it, no air-conditioned houses, no running water except for a hose, no hot water. We stayed in a couple of shacks and tents. Chad’s sister, Amy, braided Chad’s long hair. They were long thick braids. One less thing for Chad to worry about. On this trip we were able to get away to a community pool to cool off and to clean off. So we’re standing there, Chad with his crazy hair, and we’re talking and there’s these little kids gathering around Chad and just staring at Chad’s hair. It was like the world stopped and they were completely enamored with Chad’s head! So Chad carried on the conversation trying to ignore the kids. But they just stood there. So finally Chad changed his attention to the kids-he looked at them, acknowledging them all around. But they just stood there. Finally Chad is making eye contact, staring back, but the kids aren’t looking at his eyes, it is that crazy hair! Finally Chad had to say something to break their gaze and they finally scampered away! FUNNY, FUNNY STUFF! We laughed and laughed and laughed.
There was a graveside service and a memorial service yesterday. I was fortunate to be able to travel up to Iowa and attend. There were so many people there. Mostly family-Chad came from a HUGE family. But there were so many friends there too. And I got to spend time with a few of them swapping stories and remembering the good ol’ days of youth. Many laughs and many tears.
The last time I saw Chad face-to-face he seemed like he was still finding himself, still figuring out God and the church and his life. He didn’t seem to be that close to God at the time. I can’t tell you how thrilled and blessed I was a few years ago when I first discovered that Chad was a minister!
I miss Chad’s blue hair! I miss his huge smile! I miss his laugh. Many old friends are mourning this great loss. All the stories I read, all the articles, comments and memories, first it’s interesting because they are either from Chad’s point of view or Chris’. Chris was just the younger brother to me, but I do remember that Chad loved Chris very much. There are many from Chad’s church that offered very kind words and fond memories.
There is a Facebook page that is dedicated to the memory of Chris and Chad. It has been up for about a week now. There are over 190 embers. Most of the members have funny names with funny symbols. Chris was a teacher at English First International teaching English and International Affairs. All of these foreign students offering their condolences and memories. Chris was exciting and fun. He tried to teach them baseball! He introduced them to marshmallows. So there is a pic of him with a marshmallow, he looks like he is in a classroom with his students. The marshmallow is on fire! I don’t know if there was a Sterno there or what. Roasting marshmallows in class with his students. That is a love for your job right there! I also read that he made a mean “better than sex Chocolate cake”. One of the stories that a student tells is of one of the last classes that Chris taught, he was making a case about true love, he was explaining that he had found it. Chris leaves a wife behind, Nicole. Nicole and Chris made a 6-week journey down the Mississippi in a home-made boat that he and his dad, Paul, made! That is a lust for life!
These stories are amazing and they focus on Chad or Chris. All of the kind words, all of the remembered stories, all of the impacted lives! Chad and Chris made a real impact on their world. A positive impact. An impact for the kingdom of God. They touched lives and were loved by many. Know this: They were blessed. They blessed others. God used Chad & Chris. They lived life. With a purpose! And many, many people miss them both very much. And we are thinking and praying for all of the family.
It is faith that keeps me from falling into depression or dwelling on the sadness of the loss. I know that one day I will see Chad again. We’ll catch up. We’ll recite Bill Cosby! We’ll ponder theology.
Dear Heavenly Father, please accept Chris and Chad with open arms. Please keep them until we arrive. Be with Amy and her family, Paul and Ellie, Nicole, extended family, close friends, students and parishioners and all who were touched by Chad and Chris’ life. Let them know that you love them. Give them your peace and your comfort that only you can give those that mourn and weep. Amen.
I am a better person for knowing Chad and the Miller Family.
Two side notes. One regarding communication. I was told about the tragedy from my good buddy David who pastors in Iowa-he too grew up in the youth group with Chad. He had tried to call me but I was unavailable. He finally broke the news to me through Facebook’s IM (instant message). I informed our old youth pastor through Facebook email. There is an “In loving memory…” page for Chad and Chris on Facebook. I was able to chat with friends and let them know about the tragedy and also let them know how much I appreciated them-all through Facebook. Also regarding the Internet I was able to track and read most of the articles from a Google search on “Chad Miller” and focusing on the Google search news tab. There were many, many articles. I was also able to directly email one of the reporters and share my thoughts and memories of Chad-and he even published a few thoughts. Instant communication is amazing. The funeral home posted a video and had a place to offer condolences.
Second is a lesson learned. Tell your friends you love and appreciate them. Thanks Dyanna for pointing this out and then practicing it. Life is too short. Don’t wait or take your friends for granted. Yeah, it is a little sappy, but where would we be without our friends? I’m gonna do this. I am doing this. I have looked up a few more friends (mostly by using Facebook-I may be a little addicted) and told them how much I love them and appreciate them and miss them and will always fondly remember the wonderful times I have had with them.
A few years ago, when Kaleb & Keegan were only 9 or 10 they decided to form their own partnership business!Minnie and I had settled into a Sunday afternoon nap with our little ones.We had moved into our duplex out of our apt.But we did not own a lawnmower-we would borrow the neighbor’s and buy gas.So while we were sleeping Kaleb & Keegan borrowed the mower and started their own afternoon business!
When we awoke they had made some money, the lawns were trimmed and there was even weed whacking going on!We do not own a weed whacker either-they had borrowed that too-it took both of them to use the heavy gas-powered trimmer-but they got the jobs done! They were inspired, motivated and self-sufficient.
I have been trying to get them to do the same every summer since-to start their own lawn care business.A few weeks ago Keegan confided that he did not know what to charge.So I asked him how much he wanted to make an hour and how many lawns could he and his brother finish in an hour? I explained that I make about $10/hour at my part-time job-that if he wanted the same and mowed 2 lawns in an hour that he should charge $5.00/yard. If he and his brother both wanted $10/hour then they should charge $10/yard.
Motivation is key with teens! Last weekend they wanted a video game, they rolled out our 2 lawnmowers (one was free off of freecycle.org) and canvassed the neighborhood. They came home asking for a ride to Wal-Mart to buy their game! They not only met their goal and purchased their game, but they also made a couple of regular customers!
I have to say that makes me very proud! I want them to be creative. To think outside the box. To be self-sufficient. To think of ways to make money on their own. I don’t want them to have to rely on anyone-not me, not mom, not the government, etc.! I also want them to learn how to do business! How to run a business, to count costs, to interact with people, to be fair, to be responsible, to help others, to be independent, etc. Heck they have even biked up to Wal-Mart on their own. They are really growing up! Much too fast.
Later in the evening I asked them if they wanted to step it up a bit and order free business cards from VistaPrint.com. They did! And they even ordered cheap t-shirts that had a matching logo and info.
The Twins Twins for the Price of One Lawn Care Enthusiasts
Vistaprint.com is a pretty cool site. They are known for their free (just pay for shipping) business cards; color, on card stock and with their logo on the back. A few bucks more to remove the logo on the back. They had lots of other matching stuff such as hats, stationary, post-it notes, return labels and even a cheap but simple matching website for $5/month! Next time I think we plan to spend just a few more bucks and get a frequent customer print on the back of the card-buy 10 mowings and get a free snow removal free! Thank goodness we have a snow blower! 250 business cards and 2 t-shirts shipped for under $20! Not bad! So they will feel legit, look professional and be more inspired!
Way to go guys. I love you guys and am proud of you. Now go make daddy some money!
The topic for the Friday KMBZ Shanin & Parks Show focused on Memorial Day. They were asking if Americans just thought of it as a holiday away from work and a time to relax and have fun, grill out and camp or if Americans really took time out to remember. I called in and was the first caller on the subject.
I explained that I was just another person who took a holiday off and didn’t think too much about the meaning. But that changed on Memorial Day 2005. I was camping with my family in the back yard of a friend’s house when my father called. He told me he was on his way to my house and that he should be in town later in the week. We were all looking very forward to spending time together. Later that evening I received a phone call from my aunt-she was traveling with my father, they were both recent retirees. My father was feeling ill and laid down and never awoke. He had a heart attack. My father’s passing changed my personal outlook of Memorial Day. I also went on to explain how blogging has been a great emotional outlet for me; I have blogged about my father’s passing and also about losing a set of fraternal twins to a miscarriage.
They (Shanin & Parks) were very kind to let me go first and let me speak without interruption. It was a good call.
So on Memorial Day I take time out to remember. To remember my father most of all. But to remember those that have passed away-not just military veterans, but friend, family, etc.
I hope your Memorial Day was relaxing, but I also hope you spent time reflecting.
Y’know when you watch a movie and then you watch it again later and it takes on a new meaning? I re-watched Fun with Dick and Jane:
An update of the 1977 comedy, Dick and Jane are living the good life. That is until Dick (Jim Carrey) loses his job shortly after getting a promotion that convinced his wife Jane (Téa Leoni) to quit her job. The money is gone, and the house ends up in foreclosure. Dick decides to turn to a hilarious life of crime to pay the bills with his lovely wife by his side. Then together they decide it’s time to steal back what Former CEO Jack McCallister (Alec Baldwin) had stolen from them.
The first thing to go is their lawn-the sod gets repossessed. The electricity gets shut off. They bathe in the neighbor’s sprinkler system. They downgrade to a POS compact car. It was a really funny movie a couple of years ago. Now it is an uncomfortably funny movie. You don’t have to look too far to see the effects of the current financial crisis.
I’ve been thinking quite a bit about the financial crisis for a few months now. Things are getting pretty rough. I am in the telecom industry and work for a company that can fall apart at any moment. And I am not alone. I have many friends and former co-workers that are jobless. A couple of my friends just got laid off. A few years ago there were still jobs to be found…now it is somewhat different.
Most people, even though they live paycheck to paycheck, could survive for a few months. But then they get hungry. And cold. Or hot. And frustrated. And depressed. And finally desperate. Desperate people do desperate things.
Think about it. I mean really think about it. What if…What if you lost your job. Spouse loses theirs. Interview after interview, resume after resume. Can’t find a job. Or worse yet the ONLY job you can find a $10.00-13.00/hr job. Any job means no unemployment checks. Or unemployment runs out. No insurance. $10.00 per hour times 40 hours a week times 2 (mom & dad) equals…about $40,000 a year. That’s about 75% to 50% of what most of my friends at Embarq make in a year (with both working). Could your family make it if you lost 25-50% of your income? Even those jobs will fade when folks can’t afford to eat out or remodel or whatever.
One of my favorite radio programs, This American Life, on NPR, had an incredible episode a couple of months ago entitled, Bad Bank. They talked about a hypothetical bank-the smallest in the world, it has the owner’s $10 and a guy’s $90-he earns 3% for storing his money. Then the bank turns around and loans $100 to a gal at 6% for a doll house. This is called a balance sheet. $100 in the bank, $100 being loaned out. The bank profits 3% interest right? Except gal loses her job and can’t afford her doll house payments anymore. Now the bank doesn’t have the guy’s $90 to give back. The program stated that the top 3 banks in the US have a unbalanced balance sheet-if there was a run on those banks today they would fail. The banks want the government to know this, but not the average person! As a friend of mine pointed out, the FDIC insures deposits up to $100,000 right? Correct, and who pays that? The government, the taxpayers, you and I. And so banks are using that argument-give us a bailout now where folks can keep their homes, or bail us out later when we crash and burn and folks are homeless.
I live on a street that is full of duplexes. The short block has maybe 20-30 families on it. If half of them lost their jobs to the point where they could not pay their rent/mortgage and got behind to the point where they were getting evicted…if that happened over the period of a few months they would easily get escorted off the property by the authorities-some would get deported. And what would become of empty houses? Where would homeless folks go? Personally I have no family in the area. I have no friends with extra houses in the back yard. But what if that happened over the period of a couple of weeks? And multiply that times the number of neighborhoods around the city. It is a much different picture. There would not be enough police to force folks off the properties. There would be folks who refused to leave. There would be desperation, theft, anger, violence. Things could get way out of control very fast. Evicting squatters would be at the bottom of the list and the least of anyone’s worries.
OK, here it is, here is the heart of my thoughts: What is the role of the church in these financially stressful times? Does the church encourage their congregation to uphold the law and keep the peace? Will churches open their doors to people who are homeless? Open soup kitchens and clothing pantries? Offer transportation-carpools? Treat people with dignity and respect? Offer training? Assistance? Pull their monies together? Help single moms? Pay mortgages and rent? Stock food pantries? Pay for lights, gas, water, etc? Or be in a similarly depressing state? Will churches end up in foreclosures too?
One of my friends has been laid off-for a year. He paid his bills with credit cards. He is pretty upset that he did the responsible thing, went into debt and kept current and others are getting bailed out. And what about those that took out loans that shouldn’t? The ones that knew they could not afford it? The ones that depended upon the banks to deny them the loans. They should get bailed out? Businesses should be rewarded for failing? It doesn’t seem fair! The responsible ones are getting punished. That all sound reasonable…right up until you lose your job. And you suddenly become one who shouldn’t have taken out a loan. You become the irresponsible one. You become the failure. And you feel like you have no options.
I work with a guy at Home Depot (most likely a few guys like this), he has a wife and child. He works full time and he still qualifies for federal assistance. I mean he is doing things right! And he still can’t make it! He is still at poverty level.
Another friend points out that laws are man-made and that we should do what we need to do to take care of our families. What does that mean? Squatting? Stealing?
Another points out that God won’t give us more than we can handle. But I am afraid that this line of reasoning is “prosperity Gospel” and faulty. The truth is that God will never let anything happen to us spiritually to cause us to fall from grace-to break our spirit. I am afraid that money is another matter. Food, shelter, clothing, transportation-not spiritually guaranteed! Will my theology friends steer me straight? Or back me up?
Another says let’s go, the rapture is coming, Big Daddy is gonna take us home. However, history paints a different picture of suffering and poverty-Christians participate, and are not delivered from it. The plague, the depression, wars, martyrs. God’s people are continually delivered from their sins. Just not from the pains of this world.
And I am sure the list can go on and on. The economy isn’t really that bad…It is the worst ever. Tax and spending is the answer or not the answer. The President is too liberal. The Republicans are vetoing everything. But I don’t care about the President or our government or economists. I care about the church. What is the church gonna do?
Another one of my friends attends a church who wishes to move from a temporary setting (mobile church-they set up each week in a school or some sort of facility, then tear it all down and store it during the week) to an actual building. The pastor is continually asking for money for this endeavor. My friend asks if that is the responsible thing to do? The pastor is encouraging folks not to get “distracted” by the environment around them. My friend is a little uneasy about that. He sees people around him having a rough time. He doesn’t want them to become a distraction that gets ignored! He is considering giving to a charity.
What happens when folks stop paying tithe? Not because they don’t want to, or because they don’t have any money left after paying for food. But what if they don’t have money. Any money! What if they don’t have food? No place to live? No gas to travel?
I know it is a depressing and bleak picture. I hope it is all crazy talk. On one hand I say that things will never get that bad. On the other hand I see layoffs and low-paying jobs.
But…what if? And what will Christ’s church do? I hope pastors are paying attention. I hope they are thinking about preparing for a possible crisis. I hope Christians are thinking outside of their consumer society. Outside of their immediate family-you might not think you have extra room…but your friends may be eying your garage or basement soon. Heck, I might be eying your basement!
I would like to know what you think.
Here’s what I think I think:
The church has a real opportunity to be the church. The real test will be to see Christians taking in other Christians (and non-Christians!). Families! Will churches open their doors to the poor? The homeless? The filthy? The non-Christian? I hope so.
Will Christians do the right thing? I don’t know what I would do if I was facing eviction. I don’t know where I would go or what I would do. I have no family in the area. I don’t know who I would feel remotely comfortable asking for a place to stay-for a family of 6. Or a handout. Or a ride to work. I would really want to stay and become a squatter in my rented duplex-my landlords have a real nice house…until they need to downgrade to my place. I hope I embrace legal and peaceful options. I hope I remember who is my Father. I hope I remember you, my friends and offer to help you.
Will Cristian landlords reduce rent? Will Christian business owners take a decrease in pay? Will Christians continue to sacrificially give? Will Christian landlord evict families? Well, these are difficult ones that have no easy answers.
I hope most of these questions will not have to be answered-especially by me.
Although I did not blog a great deal this past year, I have been reading many blogs-mostly my friends’-that have challenged me and have helped me grow. There are links to those blogs along the sides here, but a special thanks to Pastor Donnie, Pastor Monte Asbury, Joe Kumor, Joe Hays, Dave Brush & Bill Marty (also a shout out to Ben and Irene DeLong).
So here is a quick look back to 2008 and a possible peek at the future.
Looking Back at 2008
2008 was one of the fastest years for me. It seemed to go by at light speed. I am sure that working 2 jobs had a lot to do with it. Minnie and the twins have been in drama classes and performances this past semester and that has also contributed to a very busy schedule.
Transportation was another issue that contributed to business as well as financial strain. One minivan has had the engine replaced, the other had the transmission rebuilt and also had the head gasket replaced. And now my minivan needs radiator work. Fun times. It is hard for us when we only have one vehicle.
It has been over a year since we entered into the Dave Ramsey Financial Peace University program. My check is being garnished to pay off student loan debt, but the amount that is being garnished doesn’t even cover the interest. Our church now offers online tithing, and we are taking advantage of that-It isn’t even a conscious choice, tithe just automatically gets taken out of our check. So we are regularly tithing, we feel pretty good about this.
I finally signed up with Facebook this past spring, which is likely a reason for less blogging. I had never done any of the social networking sites, so it was all new to me. I have been able to reconnect with friends from college, high school and even elementary school. I joined a group dedicated to the alumni of my old youth group-that has been especially fun. I have been able to better stay in touch with close friends and have had some relationships strengthen. On the down side I am addicted to a couple of the games-Mob Wars in particular. Join my mob, feed my addiction.
Daycare has been a pretty jolting change this month. All of our children have been with the same daycare provider-so for over 12 years we have been with the same babysitter. Earlier this month without notice, our daycare provider announced that she is closing the daycare, is divorcing her husband, moving out of her house and moving in with her lesbian friends. Not much more to say about that. We found a new daycare and will start in a few days.
Looking Forward
I kinda agree with my friend Dave B about not going on and on about new year resolutions. Now having said that, Minnie wanted a Wii Fit and I found one at the very last minute. I feel fat. I look fat. Heck, I probably smell, and sound fat too. I would really like to lose weight. Maybe I will this year. It would be a very healthy move.
Other than that I have no major issues that I wish to address. Notice I didn’t say that I have no major issues. I have lots of issues. I just wish to ignore them.
But that isn’t totally true. I mean I am at a pretty healthy spot in my life. Physically, spiritually, economically, relationally and emotionally I am pretty good. Same thing for the rest of my family. Of course there is always room to grow, to love better, to worship without barriers, to serve more, to rest more, to eat better, etc. And I think most of the time my family is progressing on that endless journey. Joe Kumor is our small group pastor and that has been a very healthy thing for our family. Love you guys-had a blast ringing in the year on New Years Eve!
Kaleb and Keegan turn 13 this month. Teenagers. Yeah, pretty big deal. They have been practicing their teen attitudes for awhile now. But overall they are great kids. They are healthy, doing well in school and have pretty good attitudes most of the time. They have great friends and they have a zeal for life. Not to mention that they own the Nintendo Wii and DS Lite. Love you guys! Remember the XBOX 360 is mine, so be good or you won’t be able to play Guitar Hero World Tour any more. Just sayin’.
Calvin turned 5 last month and Corbin turns 3 at the end of this month. Everyone is growing up.
And that has been the biggest awakening of all during 2008 that I can take into 2009-I am getting older. We are all getting older. All my boys are growing up, becoming young boys and on their way to young men. Kaleb and Keegan will never get that tree house I promised them if we ever bought a house. Minnie (turns 40 this year) and I are approaching *GULP* MID-LIFE. And that just seems weird. Is half of my life really over? Most likely.
So I suppose that it is time for a mid-life crises. I am open to suggestions.
On September 5th 2008 our female, miniature wiener dog, Izzy, gave birth to 6 healthy Puppies, 3 male and 3 female! YEA! Everything went perfect and all are doing great. You can read more about them here: http://thewienerdogblog.wordpress.com/
The puppies should be ready to sell by Christmas. Let us know if you are interested!
I have a new love. And this new love is exciting and everything is new and bright and our relationship is smooth and delightful! And a HUGE shout out to Joe M. for uniting us. Of course I am talking about my new Sprint Mogul PPC phone from HTC, the HTC 6800.
My good buddy Joe works near the marketing group at Sprint. He receives phones FOR FREE! I was WAAAY jealous when he first got the Mogul-it is the next version up from my 6700. We were IMing each other a couple of weeks ago and I asked him if he was still using his Mogul Phone. He replied that he had moved on and offered the phone to me. HECK YA! I didn’t even have to ask or beg (and I would have)! Thanks Joe! Really, if you would like my first born, Kaleb is all yours! Heck I’ll even throw in Keegan for good measure (I’ll still be getting the better deal)!
The HTC 6800 is the next version of the UTStarcom 6700. Audiovox became UTStarcom who became HTC. These Pocket PC phones come with a mobile version of Windows which allows them to do just about everything-games, contacts, email, pocket Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Access and much, much more. Here are a couple of my reviews.
The Mogul is not a new phone, it has been out for well over a year, but it has the few features that have become a must for me as it relates to PPC phones: a touch screen, a slide-out keyboard, Windows Mobile which allows one to sync up to email and contacts. I say this because of the few phones that have entered the market lately (the Touch, I-Phone, Instinct, Blackberrys, etc) they seem to fail in one area or another.
The Mogul phone has all of the features of the 6700:
Windows Mobile 6.1 (email, contacts, Word, Excel, etc.)
Bluetooth (wireless headset/ear piece), Built-in Wifi (with a very handy on/off switch)
Voice dialing, picture contacts
Internet browser
Games, camera, mobile Windows Media, etc
The Mogul is smaller, thinner and more sleek-looking than the PPC 6700. The screen is also visibly brighter and clearer. It sounds better (better to play music on). There are a few more ergonimically-placed buttons that make the phone much easier to use. The camera is 2.0 Mega Pixels instead of the 1.3 that the 6700 has. Even though the 6700 was GPS-capable, the manufacturer and the service privider deliberately disabled it and it could not be enabled. GPS is finally enabled and works great on the 6800. The battery life is substantially better.
I like to actually use my phone-to take advantage of the features. I have 3 email accounts on my phone, Yahoo, Hotmail and an email account that syncs up to my corporate email account. I downloaded and installed (free) Google Maps-it works with the built-in GPS. HTC has a great (free) today plug-in that allows you use picture contacts and easily check the weather. I also use a couple of (free) push programs to check news and such-Yahoo Mobile, Avant Go (Movie Habit channel), On Demand, I think Google and MSN may have downloadable apps as well.
Here are a couple of handy sites to download free and not-so-free software:
Flash memeory is cheap nowadays. I purchased a 4GB Micro memory stick at Microcenter for $19!
If I HAD to pick something negative to say about the phone it is the stylus. It is telescoping and it slides from the bottom up. HOWEVER, it ALWAYS fits snugly! I won’t be losing it like I did the other 57 with the other phone.
I will continue to let you know how I am using my phone and how it is performing. So far I love it!
First is a tool that is helping me write this very post (as well as my last post-The DK review)! ScribeFire is software that you can install and run in a browser window. It easily edits and publishes your blog entries (pages, and posts with pics, links, etc), even easier that on the blog site itself! It is a pretty cool little tool. Thank you Joe H for posting this on his blog. Check it out!
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Next is a pretty cool browser add-on called RoamAbout by Vysr. RoamAbout is supported by Google and is a cool “toolbar” that is added in the lower, right hand corner of your browser window. You wanna Wikipedia a word and not leave the page you are on? Highlight the word, click on the toolbar and then click the “W” / Wikipedia icon and a new window appears over your existing window.
You can do similar things with Youtube, news, music, blogs, pics, etc. I had it installed with IE and with Firefox. I use tabbed browsing with both browsers and it seemed to really eat up the system resources. SO I disabled it in IE and it seems to work MUCH better in just Firefox. It is not easily uninstalled, but the plug-in can be disabled with ease. Check it out!
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Last is another Google-supported browser app called piclens (click to get a preview before you download it). This is a gem for looking at internet pics. Google your favorite pics and then view them (merely by clicking on the arrow that appears over the pic) in a window that appears over the browser window. But not just the 10 or 20 pics that appear on the initial Google page, but ALL of them and in a presentation that you can scroll through like with Apple’s I-touch-like a roll-a-dex! It is pretty neat! There seems to be just the tiniest bit of a glitch on my dual monitor setup, but it is well worth checking it out!
All of these were SUPER easy installs that took just a few minutes if not seconds to install, learn and become an integrated part of my browsing world.
It seemed I was a mite of sediment
That waited for the bottom to ferment
So I could catch a bubble in ascent.
I rode up on one till the bubble burst,
And when that left me to sink back reversed
I was no worse off than I was at first.
I’d catch another bubble if I waited.
The thing was to get now and then elated.
—Robert Frost, In a Glass of Cider
I have seen the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight, 3 times now. Saturday of opening week, the following Wednesday on the IMAX and then again last Wednesday night. I don’t normally watch movies more than once, let alone over and over again. But people, please, if you plan on going tonight, invite me along. Yeah, it is THAT good. One of the best movies EVER!
“And I thought my jokes were bad…” I liked the “original” Batman movies of the ’90s. A lot! But after seeing Batman Begins…it makes the old ones look like a joke! And the new ones just take Batman to a whole new level. Less child-like cartoons, and much more comic, graphic-novelesque. It is refreshing and it will mature movies based on comics. The kids will like it (little scary for the wee ones), but adults will LOVE it!
“Why so serious?” I was not one of the people that was caught up in the “Heath Ledger” hype surrounding this movie. I was a little judgmental and thought that it was huge waste to have a life senselessly snuffed out. BUT, as it turns out, Ledger may have ODed on doses of legal and illegal drugs-just by accident. It may have been his best role and performance yet. It is too bad he couldn’t experience the accolades. I heard a story that Jack Nicholson contacted Heath to warn him about the part-saying that it was a tough character to get out of your head. They say that Ledger was taking sleeping pills-struggling with the separation from the dark character. In that case it is just plain sad. I say all of that to say that I’ve wanted to see The Dark Knight-but not merely for the sake of a last performance.
“How about a magic trick?” The movie is fantastic! Christian Bale is back and plays the dualistic characters of Batman and Bruce Wayne superbly! Bruce Wayne is as suave and immature as ever and Batman is everything good and honorable in a superhero! The other supporting actors are just as great; Alfred plays a substantial role, Fox is cleaver and witty and righteous, Commissioner Gordon is human and cares about protecting the people and Harvey Dent, a.k.a Two Face is a man bent on being “fair” (what a great way to explain the “birth” of Two Face!). But Heath Ledger’s Joker steals the show. Hands down…I couldn’t wait to see Joker in the next scene and then the next!
“This town deserves a better class of criminal.” The Dark Knight’s Joker is amazing and perfect! There hasn’t been a bad guy like this in a very long time. The Joker isn’t interested in money, power or fame, he just wants to be an agent of chaos and turn peoples’ plans against them-for fun, for entertainment! He just wants to play with chaos! He wants to laugh! Joker was ruthless but with class, darkly funny but never silly, demented or insane and NEVER out of control. I found myself liking him wanting to see what he would do next! I never found myself despising him! I didn’t want to see him win, but I sure wanted to see him try! What a great character! He was definitely a better class of criminal.
“Now we’re talking.” I can’t say enough about this movie. I couldn’t get enough of The Joker. The action was great and the gadgets are cool, but they didn’t have to carry the movie; the acting and the story carried the audience along at a quick and entertaining pace! The themes were Hollywood and typical to superhero movies: Light shining in the darkness, good over evil, hero over truth, perception of hope over despair. I was disappointed that feelings of safety were more important than the truth-which involves the burden that is placed on Batman.
“What makes you think I want to hear you talk?”
Finally a few random thoughts…
Brilliant not to name these movies 1, 2, 3, etc…I mean Spider man 4?!
Egads! Granted, NONE of the Batman movies were numbered,
still…brilliant.
The Dark Knight is easily in my top 5 movies of all time. It is breaking all kinds of box office records (in part thanks to me!).
I’ve been comparing this movie to The Empire Strikes Back for a couple of reasons…the caliber of bad guy and because the Joker kinda sorta wins in the end! The Empire Strikes Back is one of the only movies where the bad guy, Darth Vader, totally wins!
This movie will be quoted like The Godfather! Joker had the best quotes (in bold throughout this post).
Is Two face really gone? There was a funeral for Harvey Dent…but under false pretenses…so Two Face MAY be back!
Did you catch the change of the Semi? The painted red “S” changes the logo from “Laughter is the Best Medicine” to SLaughter is the Best Medicine!
Gotham is based on Chicago rather than a Gothic New York City-I liked this-the Gothic-ness shows up in the characters, not the architecture. That was a nice change.
Batman is much more human and constantly becoming the superhero!
This story continues the progression of the origins of Batman…it isn’t just “business as usual”. Wayne Manner and the Bat Cave do not exist yet.
I’m not a perfect person
There’s many things I wish I didn’t do
But I continue learning
I never meant to do those things to you
And so I have to say before I go
That I just want you to know
I’ve found out a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is you
I’m sorry that I hurt you
It’s something I must live with everyday
And all the pain I put you through
I wish that I could take it all away
And be the one who catches all your tears
Thats why i need you to hear
I’ve found out a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is You
and the reason is You [x3]
I’m not a perfect person
I never meant to do those things to you
And so I have to say before I go
That I just want you to know
I’ve found out a reason for me
To change who I used to be
A reason to start over new
and the reason is you
I’ve found a reason to show
A side of me you didn’t know
A reason for all that I do
And the reason is you
I received this vivid and emotional email from my very good friend, Dave Phares. Dave and I grew up together in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Dave is now a pastor in Monticello, IA. My mom and step dad also live in Cedar Rapids-they are outside of the flood area. Thank you Dave for sending this out.
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I was in downtown Cedar Rapids again yesterday. I’ve never seen anything like it in Iowa before. The other day I was talking to my wife about floods and I mentioned to her that I’m an Iowan, and this means I’m used to flooding and tornados every spring. But this is unreal. A town to the north was destroyed by a tornado. I heard it was a half-mile wide tornado. I didn’t believe the person at first, because we don’t have EF5’s in Iowa. We get little tornados that take a roof or two, and uproot a few trees here and there. Occasionally we’ll lose a couple of buildings. The half-mile wide variety tornados are pretty much reserved for Texas and Oklahoma. But sure enough, it was measured as an EF5. The strongest tornado in Iowa in over 30 years. Now the flood. A couple of weeks ago they were saying we might equal 1993. Then we heard that this might exceed 93 by two feet. Then, when it was supposed to crest on Wednesday at 24 feet (2 above 93) we got a storm (the same system that produced the tornado that killed the scouts, an EF3 they say). That storm hit the brakes over central to eastern Iowa and dumped on us for several hours. All of a sudden we were around 10 feet over the 93 level. All this is to say that things are strange this year.
Back to Cedar Rapids, for those of you who know the town, the water went from 10th street between Mercy Hospital and McKinley Middle School (my Junior High!) to the east, and to the foot of the hill that Kingston Stadium/Vets Memorial stadium sit on to the West. It took my parents house and went about 8 or 9 feet from the ground level. My sister’s house is dry, but she lives only about a half mile from the western edge of the flooding. This flood took out thousands of residences. The smell of the city reminds me of wet cats and dogs who’ve decided to take a roll in their own feces. The A&W on Ellis had sludge all around it, and sadly it had the worst smell I’ve encountered so far. You know it was sewage. Downtown is completely dark except where work crews have lights running via generators. Downtown is likely to be dead for a while. There is talk of the city and county government offices moving into Westdale mall. The city busses are taking up residence at Kingston stadium, the central police station has moved…everything is different. There is no lighted traffic control at all down there. Stop signs have been put up everywhere, and it takes considerably longer to get around. Red cross trucks are all over driving 10 miles an hour, passing out water to anyone who needs it. On Friday the whole town was at work cleaning out the ruined stuff in their houses. Almost everything the flood touched gets tossed. If you’ve ever been into the “bad” neighborhoods in any big city, you know what it looks like when someone’s been evicted: all their stuff sits on the street corner. Imagine that, but with a pile in front of every single building. Even the high rise buildings downtown.
I got to see my parents house on Friday. This isn’t the house we grew up in. It’s the place my parents bought two years ago; small but nice. There’s mold already growing on the kitchen cabinets. Every conceivable peice of wood is warped…the doors, the floors…everything. The carpet that was once a light grey is now dark brown. The whole thing has to be gutted. And that is the story for everyone in their neighborhood, and for everyone in around 4000 houses. Then there’s Iowa City, Waterloo, etc…everyone’s been hit.
But you know what is cool. On Friday I saw the whole town out working. Not a few industrious people, but the whole town. Think of the man hours it took to make those piles in front of the houses. On Friday afternoon there were thousands of people in every neighborhood cleaning up and patching things together. I love being an Iowan. I love being a midwesterner. We may be considered fly over country by those on the coasts, but in the hearts of these people is the same rugged determination that defined the early pioneers. No complaining that the government should do more. No whining about “why me?” Just elbow grease and determination. There ain’t no way the people are going to give up, they’re up for the fight. It was good to see.
-Dave Phares-
Derin Says: I just want to add that many folks who bought new houses in the past 10 years were told that they were way outside of the flood plain and they were not even given the opportunity to buy flood insurance-and now their houses are underwater. FEMA may be able to help some folks. I remember the flood of 93 pretty vividly. Water would pour in over engines and ruin them. People were replacing hot water heaters multiple times. Cattle and other farm animals died. Crops were ruined. My car got stuck in a foot of water (my stupidity to try to drive through it). Branches and trees were down daily. All kinds of flood water and none safe to drink. And on and on. It seemed to never quit raining. And this time it is much worse.
My friend Scott called me last week-another person I grew up with in Iowa. Even though Scott lives in St. Jo with his family, his mom still lives in Cedar Rapids-she’s OK. He told me that this has been quite an emotional experience for him.
Our past has a sneaky way of catching up with us. The truth is we all have our own baggage that we would like to permanently misplace somewhere. Throw it out, burn it, leave it behind-lost forever. Most of us deny our past, forget it, pretend like it never happened and we move on. But we don’t move on. Because we don’t know how. We get stuck. Our past effects our today.
My good friend Irene had such an experience. I appreciate her honesty and I hope she embarks on a journey of healing. But it reminded me of my own journey and my own past.
My 4 year old had a very tough time waking up this morning. I didn’t just switch topics… It turns out that even though mom and dad sent him to bed, he didn’t actually go to bed or to sleep. Instead he was caught by my twins playing in his room with his toys with the light on pretty late! Of course HIS version of the story was that our twins barged into his room, turned the lights on and woke him up.
This is what children do: They make bad decisions, they suffer unknown consequences and then they angrily blame someone else later on. But, that’s what kids do! They don’t know any better. When Calvin realizes that it feels better to be awake and happy in the morning then he’ll make better decisions at night. Or he’ll understand that he is the reason why he is cranky and whiny. But today he is 4 and he just doesn’t get it. So it is the responsibility of someone older and wiser to guide him and help him make the right decisions. Someone safe.
What happens when the influence isn’t wiser or safe? What if another guides us in the wrong direction? What if an adult hurts us? Well, then we get a whole lot of 4 year old adults running around.
I have a past too. And so does my spouse. It is ugly stuff. Abuse, hurt, pain…unhealthiness. At one time we were adult children, running around making bad decisions that hurt ourselves and others. We blamed our past and we blamed others. Because we didn’t know how to make good decisions-we just didn’t know what that looked like. We just knew the screwed up past. We had an inkling that our past wasn’t the same past as most of our friends. We hoped that the present wasn’t how things were supposed to be. But we didn’t have the maturity to make the right decisions. We become a wounded adult child. We needed help. We needed another healthy influence to help us grow up. And to help us realize that we are responsible for the choices we make today.
So some of us seek help. I spent the first several years of my marriage in various Christian self-help groups. Christian 12-step programs, learning how to recognize the screwed upness of my present, learning how to set boundaries. Recognizing who caused the pain, identifying the unhealthiness in the past, understanding how it effects my present and finally recognizing that I am the only one to blame for my present. Recognizing my need for Christ and healthy friends. I found safety. I found people who were like me. I found healing. And I was able to break free of my past and be liberated.
I didn’t do it on my own, but I grew up somewhere along the line. I still have my past-I can’t erase it. It isn’t lost luggage. It isn’t stuck in a closet somewhere. But it is no longer the centerpiece of my life. And it no longer controls me. I have learned how to deal with it, to live with it. It is neatly packed and out of the way. Where it belongs. Where it won’t hurt me or others. I don’t have a need for it. Because it is dirty and trashy. But I understand it. I remember it when I need to. And most of all I learn from it. I recognize when I am doing something because of it. And I make a different decision. A healthy decision. And because of that damn dirty, filthy, sinful, painful, abusive, harmful past I am able to help others. I become a wounded healer. That is a miracle and it is grace and mercy all at the same time. Heck, now I am an adult among many 4 year olds! It seems absurd at times. I’m the healthy one! Healthier anyway…
Minnie and I are always keeping an eye out for those around us who are wounded and who we identify with and who might be looking to grow up. We’ve been there. We want to help. The truth is we aren’t the parent/adult that is needed in their lives. Christ is the only healthy adult that can truly transform and heal and restore one to healthiness. Fortunately Minnie and I know that Holy Father. And we would like to facilitate introductions.
I used to be a skater dude. I wasn’t all that great, but I really enjoyed skateboarding (none of that inline crap!). I wasn’t exactly a poser, I was pretty serious about it, I just wasn’t all that skilled at it. I had a pretty good deck, trucks and wheels. The pinnacle of my skill was the ability to drop in on a ramp that was over 7 feet tall. I couldn’t even ollie nor rail slide. Yeah. Well.
So Tony Hawk was and still is one of the best skateboarders EVER. You could say he is the Michael Jordon of skateboarding. Ever seen a McHawk? Go look up the skateboard vid, Ban This. Or just go to youtube and type in mchawk.
ANYWAY, my buddy Lisa sent this to me:
YEAH! Pretty good! OK, better than I ever dreamed of being. And the video is very well done! Way to go Dad!
I saw August Rush this weekend, it is a pretty cool movie about a kid musical prodigy. One of the styles the kid plays on guitar is tapping out sounds on the neck of the guitar. Very cool and it reminded me of a couple of musical geniuses!
As many of you know I am a HUGE Phil Keaggy fan. Phil Keaggy is one of the best guitarists in the world-it isn’t just my opinion, the rumor is that Hendrix and Clapton site him as one of the best too. It just so happens that he is also a follower of Christ. I own more than 30 of his CDs, 1 DVD, and have seen him in concert about a half a dozen times (with a band, with his band, Glass Harp and solo). He is INCREDIBLE! You can see some of his videos here, this one is my fav: Salvation Army Band:
One of the things that he does well is work with a digital loop machine and he just builds and builds and it is pretty cool.
While looking for more Keaggy stuff and people who Keaggy had had an influence on I stumbled across Stanley Jordan. When I first saw his stuff I was amazed. But then Chris B. sent me this super incredible clip of Stanley Jordan playing Led Zepplin’s Stairway to Heaven:
That’s right, he plays 2 guitars at the same time! Wow, it doesn’t get much cooler than that-unless you can find some genius to play a patriotic song with his feet or something.
I just wanted to take a moment to appreciate life and modern advancements in medicine. And God’s timing as well.
My friend Cliff has terminal cancer. It is this cancer that is in his chest. The doctors were talking about quality of life and not quantity of life. They were certain that cancer would eventually take his life. They had talked about surgery as a last resort-if Cliff became disabled or had trouble breathing etc. That was before.
Cliff went into surgery a couple of weeks ago-the cancer was pressing against his spine and he couldn’t walk. The surgery was successful. Cliff called me a couple of days after the surgery-he was winded-he was already walking with a walker! He asked me if he had told me that he has a new doctor. He had failed to mention that his old doctor lives a few houses down from another doctor; they shared notes and the new doctor took Cliff’s files with him on vacation and spent about 12 hours looking over the data. He came back and scheduled a consultation with Cliff. This new doctor believes that he can get ALL OF THE CANCER out of Cliff’s body. Amazing. There have been so many cool advances in medicine.
Another very cool advancement: When Cliff was researching his cancer a couple of years ago he discovered that a few doctors were using missle guidance systems to operate on cancer patients. The laser would move along with the patient’s breathing and movements as it targeted cancer! Pretty crazy.
If Cliff hadn’t gotten worse when he did his doctor may have never offered his records to another doctor who seemed to have the miraculous skills and knowledge to eradicate “terminal” cancer. That, my friends, is God’s timing.
Another modern development surrounds Autism. Autism has been in the news lately and rightfully so! The storeis don’t really tell you what is going on behind the scenes that are spawning the stories that you are seeing on TV and hearing on the radio. When children and military personnel receive vaccination shots mercury is used as a preservative. Most folks can naturally excrete the mercury from their system. But some cannot. Remember the Mad Hatter from Alice and Wonderland? The phrase, “Mad as a hatter”, was used many years ago to describe folks who hand-crafted hats. The manufacturing process contained mercury (in the tools I think), eventually these folks display symptoms of anger and madness! Why? Answer: mercury.
Mercury is NOT good for the body. Mercury surrounds nerves and blocks signals. The cool thing is that mercury does not damage the cells and nerves, it just holds them hostage! Most people have a natural ability to excrete mercury from their system. Others, it seems, may not excrete the mercury so easily-they get vaccinations and shots and the mercury settles in the brain and they then develop symptoms of Autism or OCD or mental illness. I do not think that vaccines and shots are preserved with mercury an longer.
So anyway some doctors are taking unprecedented and alternative approaches to helping folks who suffer with Autism and other symptoms such as OCD. The goal is to flush the mercury out of the body! Testing along with medicine, in some folks, has resulted in a HUGE reduction in the symptoms. Dan Marino’s son suffered from autism. He went through the expensive and lengthy process and now his son does not have any signs of autism. One of the bad things is that the process makes symptoms worse before they get better. But a possible cure for Autism-a very little known condition? AMAZING! Now the science is still out there, some folks go through the program and are still autistic. Autism is a very misunderstood condition. Some folks may have Autism “naturally”, while others may have it because their body does not naturally excrete mercury.
Here’s the real story that gets buried: You won’t see drug companies jumping on the bandwagon to offer these “detox” drugs to folks though. They don’t want to admit that their drugs that used mercury as a preservative were harmful in the first place! Can you imagine the money that the drug companies would lose? Well, you don’t have to imagine. Lawsuits have already been filed and won (or settled) by folks to have the big drug companies pay the $75,000 that it costs to go through the mercury detox programs. The programs last about a year. Which means an autistic child MAY be “cured” within a year. THAT is amazing! Extremely amazing.
I work with a gentleman who is going through the program with his daughter. He was in the military and suffers from OCD and his daughter has Autism. They are both pretty brilliant people. They understand that their behavior is not rational. But they don’t have a choice. Maybe advancements in modern medicine will offer a cure.
I have come to the conclusion that Home Depot is the worst place on earth to be employed at. Not because of the pay or the people or the policy, all that is pretty good.
I used to work in the food service industry, Hardee’s, Arby’s, campus cafeteria, and as manager at an on-campus snack shack. When you work around food you get hungry. If you want to satisfy your desires you eat. You get full. You go on. And maybe you repeat the next shift.
But at Home Depot I work around stuff. Home improvement, gas grills, appliances, projects, gardening, and the list goes on and on. I get hungry for stuff. This door is on sale, a dryer has been marked down, there is a display of 100 shop vacs, I need a cordless drill, I want to redo my kitchen, I want to grow a new yard! And the list goes on and on. The problem is if I do give in and buy something-anything, there is just more expensive stuff to buy the next time!
Another dumb thing that Home Depot does is restrict technology, let me explain. Home Depot employs a person whose sole responsibility is to create the weekly schedule. Even though they have a paper form that you can fill out to request days off or to detail availability, how much easier would it be just to email the Scheduler? Nope, they have internal email, but not external. OK, so use the many PCs to create a document…NOPE, no such application-no MS Word, no Wordpad, no Notepad! NOTHING! AHH! BUT,
I persevered. And I remembered a really useful website called http://cl1p.net/ Now HD is pretty good about filtering out questionable sites (and not-so-questionable), but they let you go to Google and such, and it let me go to http://cl1p.net. You simply add your own subdirectory and type something up, save it and it is on the net! Notes, pics, storage, etc. It is like an online clipboard. Check this out: http://cl1p.net/durk-Home_Depot So I used this nifty website and typed up my availability schedule and submitted a professional-looking, printed page. And then I was asked to fill out a paper form anyway (sigh).
Autobiography in Five Short Chapters
By Portia Nelson
Chapter I
I walk down the street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I fall in
I am lost . . . I am helpless
It isn’t my fault.
It takes forever to find a way out.
Chapter II
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I pretend I don’t see it.
I fall in again.
I can’t believe I am in the same place.
But, it isn’t my fault.
It still takes a long time to get out.
Chapter III
I walk down the same street
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I see it is there.
I still fall in . . . it’s a habit.
My eyes are open.
I know where I am.
It is my fault.
I get out immediately.
Chapter IV
I walk down the same street.
There is a deep hole in the sidewalk.
I walk around it.
[EDIT: "Improv", not "Improve"...Thanks alot Bill ("Bill" should be read with just a bit of contempt)]
This, my friends is simply unbelievably cool! Check out this video of a group called Improve Everywhere.
You can see this video and its comments here and other videos from this group here.
My wife has been part of an improve group in the past. She is pretty darn good, but then so is the group headed by local middle school teacher, Jeff Yarnell. Jeff’s students have appeared at the New Theater Restaurant and other drama productions local and not-so-local.
I used to participate in church youth group musicals and dramas. That’s right, I acted and I sang. Now I wasn’t ready for American Idol or anything close, but I was alright. I can carry a tune and I can lie and make a fool of myself on stage pretty good. I miss it only slightly. But it was fun when I did it!
Ahhh…I used to be wild and crazy!
Please comment on the video-I’d love to hear your thoughts!
My twin’s wordpress blog has gotten 15,614 hits. My site has gotten 2,438 hits. Holy hits Batman! I mean they’re 12! But here is the big difference-they blog about Club Penguin. I blog about debt and part-time jobs. Another difference-they actually say something every few days, I haven’t had much to say for the past couple of months. And that is because I haven’t actually had much to say, I haven’t had any glorious or profound thoughts. I have been working. And that is pretty much it.
I love the Advent season. It is a season of anticipation. It is also a season of Christmas music. At the Home Depot they have been playing Christmas music since Black Friday. I am about sick of it. And I couldn’t figure it out at first…I mean yeah you hear the same song every 45 minutes, by a different artist, sung completely different, and sometimes, most depressingly, in a country style, but why do I have this urge to remove my eardrums out of my head with a utility knife? And then it dawned on me: None of the songs were actually about the birth of Christ! They were all commercial Christmas music for the most part. Songs about winter and snow and lights and Christmas trees. Trite and familiar and it is supposed to make people happy. It just pushes me closer to the postal edge. I’ll give you a white Christmas in a winter wonderland… Willie Nelson sings Christmas songs? Brings shivers to my spine.
On a different note…(get it, on a different NOTE? Because music is made up of notes? And I’m talking about music…Yeah, pretty funny stuff!)
Ever since City On A Hill: Its Christmas Time came out I have been hooked. I hope you will check out the link and buy a copy of it, you will not be disappointed. It is Christmas worship pure and simple. There is one song in particular that cuts into my heart, it is an original song (new) and it is sung by Jars of Clay, but the lyrics just tear me up. It is talking about Mary: “…you gave birth to the death that would bring us to life.” Just insanely powerful. Jesus was born with one purpose: To die for our sins so that we may truly live.
The other series that I just can’t get enough of is BEC’s Happy Christmas volumes 1-4. There are many traditional songs that are sung traditionally and some that are sung with a rock edge. And some original stuff on it too. Here is my favorite song of the series by Reliant K. Click on the link to see the youtube video and hear the song.
Again, Christ came to this earth and was born to die so that one day I would pray that he would save my life. Wow. Incredible. Powerful. Simple and profound. It just makes me want to fall and worship the Christ Child and anticipate his return.
I used a new phrase in the past couple of weeks, “Blessed beyond Grace”. Now, I don’t know if I actually coined it, but I can’t consciously remember hearing it. And, quite frankly, I like the phrase a whole lot. At first read there is no such thing as being blessed outside of grace. But I mean it to say that I am blessed beyond Grace (capital G). Beyond salvation, beyond reconciliation, beyond forgiveness. I am blessed even though I have been made right with God and have a relationship through Jesus Christ. I am blessed even beyond that. God has chosen, for whatever reason (and let’s be accurate-out of grace) to bless me with many other things in addition to salvation (Grace). I hope that makes sense…God continues to pile on the goodness on top of salvation.
I was born in the richest nation in the world. I have clean running water that probably has fluoride for the teeth and minerals added for good health . I don’t merely live in shelter, but a 3-bedroom duplex with a garage and basement. And not out in the sticks or isolation or in the middle of a crowded ‘hood, but in wealthy, affluent, convenient Johnson County, KS. I have 4 Wal-Marts within 10 minutes of my house, like 20 within 20 minutes. Heck, 135th st has 2 Wal-Marts, a Sam’s Club, 3 Price Choppers, and at least 5 Mc Donald’s-all on one friggin’ street. (Is “friggin” a cuss word?)
I am not merely clothed, I have designer jeans, name brand underwear, new socks, a catalog-company shirt and a super warm fleece. And shoes. And that isn’t merely what I am wearing today, but my drawers and closets are full of nice clothing.
Shelter, clothing…FOOD. Yeah, fridge stocked with it, freezer in the basement, cupboards and pantry full of it. I am at least 50 pounds over weight.
Transportation, check. I have 2 minivans. That alone makes me wealthier than 92% of the world.
So, I guess what I am saying is that I have much to be thankful for and, that ultimately, I am blessed WAY beyond Grace. I have an awesome family. My wife loves me. I have 4 healthy boys. I have 2 wiener dogs (Dash & Izzy) that are mostly potty trained. I have a great job and so does my wife. I have an XBOX360 and a Wii. Ahh, blessed. I have friends who love me (or at least love to make fun of me). I am mostly healthy. I am somewhat intelligent and educated. I go to a great church with a great support system. I work with great people.
You can’t get much better than that.
Here is the Beechner family Christmas card 2007. Derin & Minnie are in the back. Then Keegan is on the right left and Kaleb on the left right, they will be 12 in mid January. Calvin will be 4 in mid December and Corbin will be 2 at the end of January.
Where to start…there is so much I want to talk about…I have made many observations this past few weeks.
Observation: If I work 30 hours at my new part-time job (Home Depot) then I will almost make enough money to pay half a payment for half of my total student loans. Or another way of looking at it: I will almost make enough money to make a payment on the interest on one loan. I need about 4 more part-time jobs to make any difference. Which sucks. I am working a whole lot of hours for a whole little pay, spending way too much time away from home and family, making time sacrifices and I am sore and tired all the time. I almost like the job itself and the people I work with. But I am not so sure it is worth it. I simply need to make more money.
Observation: Dreams exist so that they can be killed and obliterated, only then can one start to accept reality and live their miserable life. I see people every day who want to do more with their lives, become a lawyer, pastor, own their own business, etc. These people are dreaming. They are still 18 years old and have the lie in their heads that they can do whatever they want to do. My case-in-point: I saw a magazine last night at Home Depot, it had a dream house on the front cover. I remember the days when Minnie and I would sit around and dream about the perfect house…wrap-around porch, verandas, gazebos…sigh. Then it dawned on me: I am never gonna have that. I may never even be the owner of any house. It is time to wake up. I’m never gonna fulfill those dreams, no pastoring, no dream house. No putting my kids through college. No retirement. No new cars. No nice chrome, front-loading matching washer and dryer. No big-screen, HD TV. No refrigerator with the ice maker and the water dispenser that holds the milk on the door and has that extra door on the outside where you can just reach in and get juice or milk or a snack. No white picket fence. Although Home Depot sells most of that stuff. I’ll work until I am dead. I’ll have debt until I die. The best that I can hope for is to teach my kids to not follow in my footsteps.
Kids…I keep telling myself that someday Kaleb and Keegan will grow up in a house, with a yard and a tree house. Another dream. They are growing up so fast.
OK, so I am a little depressed and feeling sorry for myself. So what. Reality bites.
Observation: Debt still sucks. I was talking to a friend this past weekend and he confided that he was not very happy with God and student loan debt (and other debt). There was cussing involved between him and God. I cuss about a 2 dozen times a day to myself. The really bad 4-letter words too. I am angry and frustrated. This student loan debt is doing more than killing dreams. It is starting to consume me. I hate the fact that I went to MNU to be a pastor. I hate that I feel cheated and lied to by Christians. I even consulted with a bankruptcy lawyer last week. But there isn’t much they can do unless one is disabled or at the poverty level. I am neither and am actually sad about it! I hate that even though i am taking steps to better myself that they really don’t matter! I mean really!
So let’s review…Mad at God…Conned into going to MNU…insanely high student-loan debt…2nd job meaningless…hope slowly dying…future looks bleak…Life sucks. Yep, that sums it up.
And then I hear the angel in the other ear: You have a great job. You have a great family. You are getting caught up in consumerism. You got to play the XBOX360 this past weekend and kill people-that was so much fun, remember. You’re just tired. Slow down. Calm down.
But reality still bites. There still won’t be that “American Dream”. And yeah that is the lie of a consumer-based culture. But it is still a lie I want to be a part of. I don’t want to work 2 jobs until I die. I want my kinds to have a better life than me.
I posed this question to a fellow believer this weekend: If the American government is not restored religiously does this mean the Church has failed? Let me explain.
We were having a conversation about religion and politics. It was stated that America was founded on Christian principals and by Christian leaders. I agree. It was also stated that America needs to repent and to be restored to a Godly nation. I agree. So I clarified, I asked what the role of Christianity (or Christ) is in someone’s personal life? And we agreed to restore that individual to God-So that they can enter into a relationship with Christ.
What if that never happens in our American government? What if Christian leaders don’t make it into elected/appointed government leadership roles? The response I got was that then America would be worse off and stand in judgment! AGREED! At least in the spiritually. The response I got was that God would raise up Godly leaders. And once again it was re-stated that individuals need to reconcile to Christ and be saved. What if Godly leaders are not raised? Is that failure on God’s part? On the church’s? I think not. My friends thought differently.
Although I agree that individuals need to be reconciled, need to be saved, need to have the transformation that can only occur through Christ Jesus, what if that change never comes to fruition within American politics and leaderships? What if Christians constantly become the minority and pushed underground? The truth is that America is becoming secular and “turning away from God” I only put it in quotes because I am not so sure America was ever that Godly.
So I posed the question: If the American government is not restored religiously does this mean the Church has failed? Keep in mind that it is the role of the Christian to follow Christ-to help introduce individuals to Christ. It is the church’s role to change individuals! Not the government. Do I believe that Christians should not have a role in politics? NO! But I also do not believe that by not converting Congress that that somehow means failure on the part of the church.
Because take America out of the equation. What if we were Chinese or Middle Eastern or Russian? Would the calling that Christians have be any different? No. The culture would be different, the location would be different, our methods would be different-things would look different. But not the calling, not the Gospel message, not the task, not Christ.
And what happens over and over again to the church when it is given a taste of power? When Christianity was first legalized? When it gathered a military to fight against Jews and Muslims? When the Religious Right pulled the political puppet strings? Things were bad. People got hurt. People got lazy. Grace was cheapened. Religion was fashionable.
I think the day is coming when the American church will be restored to its “rightful” place: a position of humility. A position of persecution. A position of servanthood. Where Christianity is not popular, not worn like a badge of honor, not respected and where it is difficult to be a Christian. That day is already a reality for Christians in the Middle East, Russia, China, Muslim cultures, etc. And where is the church victorious? The church is growing in China and Russia. The Middle East is making martyrs out of Christians-heroes of the Christian faith. The blood of the saints is the seed of the church people! Lives are being transformed in the Middle East and in Muslim countries.
Issue #1 Iraq: Question: What is your opinion on the war in Iraq? I can only assume that the 6 answers were a summary of all the candidates. I didn’t agree with any one answer, but I closest identified with: “We are going to be in Iraq for a long time, as a support force for the Iraqi government and forces.” I believe the US should should hunker down, and militarily keep peace, set up a permanent base and start to focus on rebuilding while we train their military and create a completely safe environment for the Iraqis to form their government. The killing HAS to stop-and that can only be done with an effective military/police presence (Iraqi and foreign). My preferred exit strategy: None, we set up shop just like Germany and Japan. And we support the government in the same way-let them become independent, but never out of our sight. Or we leave and watch the whole country fall apart-which is lose-lose for everyone. I selected “Very Important.”
Issue #2: Immigration: Question: What is your position on immigration in the United States? Again, I didn’t agree 100% with any one answer. And I think I choose a different answer each time. I am trying to find the Christian answer to this and not just the Republican answer. Security is the most important part of this one to me, the US needs to know who is coming here. A fence is a joke. I don’t believe in blanket amnesty, but I don’t think the answer is splitting up families and blanket deportation either. I don’t support government-funded welfare either, you can’t just come to this country and not work! I like the bill that was just presented extending amnesty to children who were dragged here by their family. I believe in stiff fines and penalties for employers. I think denying citizenship for children born here to illegals is insane and not to mention, illegal. So I guess I’ll pick ‘Tighten security first, but I also believe we should provide a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who are already here.” And pick 3rd out of most important.
Issue #3: Taxes: Question: Do you believe the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts should be made permanent? This is where my conservatism shines through. YES. Plain and simple. Importance: let’s make it a 2.
Issue #4: Stem-Cell Research: Question: Should federal funding of embryonic stem cell research be expanded? This is where my pro-life stance shines through…Nope, especially federally-funded. Now having said that there is stem cell research that does NOT include embryonic. I have no problems with that. I still have a problem with the federal government funding it. Importance? Eh, I don’t know. Is this a big deal? The short answer is that it depends. I’ll make it a 2.
Issue #5: Health Care: Question: Do you favor or oppose the concept of universal health care in America? A few months ago I would have opposed this. Today…I keep asking myself what is the compassionate thing to do? And I keep asking what is the best for those that simply can’t afford to pay for health care? And the reasonable answer is to favor universal health care. I don’t want my taxes raised because of it. Importance: Pretty high, 3.
Issue: 6: Abortion: Do you favor or oppose legalized abortion in the United States? Of course I picked that I oppose legalized abortion. Not much room for debate there. However, the importance…I hope this isn’t news: abortion is legal in the US. And it would take some pretty huge legislation to change that. As a Christian I believe that abortion is a modern, on-going holocaust. However, the US is not a Christian nation! It is secularizing at a pretty good clip. So even though it is important to ME I don’t think abortion will significantly change in the near future-no matter what the president vbeleives. Unless maybe if the Church steps up and becomes known for the place to have your baby in a safe environment that pays expenses and gives the child a good home. I rated it as a 2.
Issue 7: Social Security: Question: Do you favor the concept of privatization of Social Security to any degree? Conservative me: Yep. Importance: High, 4th (highest). What to say. I hope that I can take advantage of Social Security benefits when I retire. I think I can invest money better than the US government.
Issue 8: Line-Item Veto: Question: Do you favor or oppose giving the president a “line-item” veto; that is, the ability to remove parts of a spending bill without needing to veto the entire bill? Yes I do and not that important, 2. Sometimes less is more. At least part of the bill would get passed without sneaky pork spending!
Issue #9: Energy: Question: Do you support federal assistance for the production of ethanol and/or biofuel as an alternative to oil? Yeah. It is time to the US becomes more independent from foreign oil. And I don;t think that the private market cares to step up. So I think it is BEST for all in the US if the gov’t paid for it. Importance: Well, would we be in IRaq if we were like primitive South American countries that are independent from any foreign fuels? No, Saddam would still be killing people. So it is of the highest importance, 4.
Issue #10: Marriage: Question: Do you favor or oppose a constitutional amendment defining marriage as between one man and one woman? Yawn. This is an issue that detracts from other important issues. Don’t mess with the federal Constitution, leave the issue up to states where the power belongs. So oppose, importance, not very, I give it a 1.
Issue #11: Death Penalty: Question: Do you favor or oppose the use of the death penalty for certain crimes? Let’s just say I am consistent, I don’t believe in killing unborn babies nor born grown-ups. I know that the Bible allows for it. I get it. Would Jesus go around killing? No. Another issue that tends to detract from starving people who can’t afford health care and can’t find paying jobs. Importance: Well, more important than issue #10, 2.
Candidate: Sam Brownback? Yeah right. Fred is like 10th! But I have filled it out where he was like 3rd or 4th. Anyway, I’m with Fred for now. And YES, the results DID surprise me.
So here is MY criteria: I will vote for a candidate that most alignes with the way I believe. I won’t single out one issue. I will also vote for a candidate that has a chance in hades to win. A vote for a 3rd party is a vote for Clinton! And that is simply bad news. So let’s say it comes down to Hillary vs. Giuliani…I will vote Republican.
There was a great interview with Rob Bell in the Wittenburg Door Magazine. One of the things that I found most intriguing was this comment about Micro-finances.
…there are huge things going on. Like micro-finance. I was in Rwanda—essentially you take someone in poverty and give them a couple of bucks so they can start a business. We met a woman who started a business, built a house, fed her family and her business was now self-sustaining and growing—on a $40 dollar loan. A Western church gave this woman forty bucks and look what she’s done. Economically speaking, that’s one of the hopes of the world right now. We have more money than we know what to do with. American churches have more concentration of wealth than any time in history in a world with massive poverty. But some are exploring with micro financing, working with ground churches and trying things that could help save our world.
I think it would be extremely cool to pay a few bucks and see someone start a business that could sustain their family, community and possibly country! Very exciting! Read the whole thing here: http://www.wittenburgdoor.com/archives/rob_bell.html
Another Sunday where I feel like crap. I want to give, I want to be obedient. But we simply don’t have the money to pay tithe and our basic bills. And I do mean BASIC BILLS. Rent, daycare, electricity, natural gas, water, gasoline, groceries, phone, clothes…there is simply nothing left. We are still a month behind on rent. I paid our water bill on Thursday-about an hour before it would have been shut off-we still have a garnishment against my check. And we are still behind and way, deep in debt.
We are in a season of financial difficulty and rebuilding. I believe it is just for a time. We are coming out of a very long season (10 plus years) where we made continuous bad decisions with our finances. We were not good stewards with what had been given to us. We repeatedly acted reactively and whimsical. HOWEVER, NOW, we are planning, we have been following Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University and we have been making and sticking to a budget. We are making better decisions, we are pro-actively budgeting and paying bills on time and communicating with debtors.
So the real issue today is do I heed the words of my pastor and act in obedience. Or do I continue with The Plan? This financial plan that we have is in an “emergency” mode that addresses the basics. The next phases will include giving, saving and getting out of debt. I keep telling myself that by not giving now we will be in a better position later to give-to be obedient and faithful and consistent with tithe.
But today Pastor is pleading with us to be obedient-TODAY and to give. The thing is we simply don’t have money to give.
And so it goes back and forth. On one hand there is a plan that gives us peace and security-a plan that we are being faithful to. A plan that we are confident will lead us to a place where we have a healthy balance with our finances-a place where we can happily and fairly easily pay tithe. It is a plan that we have entered into with prayer, faith and obedience. It is a good plan. It is a plan that works. It is proven. And right now it includes the absence of a full tithe.
On the other hand is a blind leap of faith to be obedient in my relationship with God. It involves sacrifice.
I keep telling myself that we were not obedient before, work the plan and then we can be obedient in the future. But sacrifice is not supposed to be easy nor affordable.
I don’t know what the answer is. Part of that obedience is simply choosing to NOT pay a bill that can lead to not having daycare, no electricity, no water, no phone, an angry (er) landlord, no heat, no a/c (hey this IS Kansas), no hot water, no water at all, no gas, and the list goes on and on.
I don’t subscribe to a “prosperity gospel”. I don’t believe that if I give all of my money away that God will bless me with loads of money. The truth is I can sacrifice a basic bill to pay tithe and then NOT have the money to pay that bill. I am behind on daycare, but have been paying on time since on the plan. I have had my electricity shut off more than once in the past year-in the cold winter and in the hot summer. The water has been shut off. The phone has been shut off.
And on that one hand we are vowing to pay our bills on time. And on the other hand we are not paying a tithe to God. Not today. But soon. And freely-in obedience and consistently and faithfully.
I am recognizing that our culture is changing. We are moving from a modern culture [or have already moved] into a post-modern culture. And that means a whole lot of different things to different folks. So I am exploring what that means to me and to share links to friends and findings related to an emergent culture and to an emerging me. I created a new page called EMERGING ME. Primarily I am exploring this concept in relation to the emerging church, but I also want to recognize post-modernity in everyday life and in my American culture and the influences it has had on me and the world. And future trends.
Unfortunately all of what I wrote and what I read is so vague and mysterious and (gulp) subjective. I wish someone would just stand up and start pointing to all of the modern influences on my life and tell me what to change. But even that concept is a modern one. And it is how I got to where I am! I have been told what THE ONLY biblical way of looking at the world is. I have been given the picture of how God looks and how salvation works. And I was told not to deviate from the plan! I have been told what to do and what not to do. Alcohol is bad, period. And those that drink, well they are bad too, even my conservative, reformed brother in Christ. Heck he smokes a pipe and cigars too! And he likes Halloween! How can he be a Christian? How can he be saved? And he is a 5-point Calvinist! DON’T GET ME STARTED! The TRUTH is that Dan IS a fellow follower of Christ. He teaches me new things about what it means to be Christ-like all the time. He IS my brother in Christ.
It used to be that theology was organic, it changed, not the tenants, not the Orthodoxy, but what that looked like in culture and what it looked like in relation to the latest issues. It changed as it relates to politics, music, customs, etc. And then it was defined, outlined, proven and solidified. But guess what? Culture changed, politics changed, music changed, customs changed and people changed. God didn’t change, but our response to the Gospel and our relationship with Christ should always be changing. What it means to be saved from our sins changes and to be reconciled with God changes. Yes it does, YES it does! If nothing else it changes with our sins, it changes with our relationships! But it also changes with our culture and with the changes of life. Morphing, improving, growing, evolving. And sometimes that demands theology and religion to change too. God does not change. But we change. People change.
The way we learn has changed (scholastically and scientifically, the Internet and blogging). What we are learning has changed (microbiology, modern medicine, space). Transportation has changed drastically just over the past 100 years! Commerce changed. Technology changes drastically every few months. And ALL of the effects our relationship with God and others. No you say? When is the last time you wrote a letter? How about an email? IM? Big deal? When is the last time what you said in an email was misinterpreted? Letters used to be read differently than our casual emails. We have instant ways of written communication that can intentionally and unintentionally hurt our friends, families and others. And it can also build us up and encourage one another.
The reformation changed religion forever and for the better because the church needed to change. The Holiness movement changed religion in the US and in England (sigh…for the better-mostly).
Likewise, I believe that the emergent conversation that is going on in this country will change religion and the church forever. And believe me, the church needs to change. The church needs to help the poor again. The church needs to stand up for justice again. The church needs to help people again (even gay people). The church needs to be Christ again. The church needs to stand for peace and reconciliation again.
I AM CHANGING. I WILL CONTINUE TO CHANGE. Even if it hurts. Even if it is hard. Even if the costs are high. Even if I don’t want to. But today I do want to change, I want to be a better person.
It is a shame, but I have to constantly be reminded of things that are pretty basic. Here is a short list:
Back up data (see a few posts ago)
I am a Christian first
War is bad
I am sure my wife has a much longer list.
I Am A Christian First
My Pastor Donnie recently reminded me of this and Monte’s blog reminded me again and re-enforced this idea. I have a tendency to be a Republican first. So instead of seeking a proper biblical or Christ-like response I look to Rush Limbaugh, the news and NPR BEFORE I look to the Bible, the church or to my brothers and sisters in Christ. And that is simply wrong. I am a follower of Christ FIRST and foremost. I just happen to be born in the US, so I am an American next and finally I align myself politically with many of the ideas of the Republican party-and that should be last on the list, or near last. That means I have to ask myself what would Jesus do? Or what is the right thing to do biblically? Or what is just? Or what is the least harmful response. Who is going to get hurt the most and why? And then ask questions regarding freedom, the US’s view of liberty and lastly, personal responsibility, private ownership and free trade and open commerce. I have failed to do this in the past. And for that I am sorry and I want to do better. I want to change.
War is Bad, but Sometimes Justified
Although it is not always avoidable, war is bad. Killing people is bad. Stopping bad people from continuing to hurt and kill people is almost always the more right thing to do. It is just. it is right. And many times that looks like war. And sometimes it does not, sometimes there is diplomacy and embargoes and such. But war should be entered into cautiously, be very calculated and be decisive and short. So I have to ask those questions I was just telling myself to ask when talking about war. WWII was a war that, I believe, was justified entering into. Hitler=BAD, killing Jews=bad, attacking the US=bad, world domination=bad, stopping the Axis=good. Ending tyranny=good. Lives were sacrificed, but for a much greater good.
But what about the Iraq war? Well, I don’t have all the answers. I think many of the things that Saddam Hussein did to the people of Iraq were wrong. And so did a court from his country. He was tried and put to death. Saddam will not be hurting anyone else ever again. That is a good thing, it is a greater good. But invading Iraq? This war could have been avoided and should have been handled differently. Intelligence was bad, caution was thrown to the wind, calculations were inaccurate, planning was incomplete, and the war goes on and on with no decisive end in sight. I’d like to think that Bush’s intentions were good and that things have progressed badly. I am also not talking about “war on terror.” A declaration of war on atrocity and murder and oppression and evil is noble, justified and should be the goal of every country and every people-it is the greater good. All people of the world should be able to live in freedom and peace no matter their skin color, where they were born or what they believe.
But back to Iraq, OK, we did it, we are there, so now what? I don’t know. I think we should either gain control and establish peace and restoration or get the heck out. The first will take a whole lot more effort, people, and military might. I think dragging it out forever is NOT the answer and some of the rules of engagement are getting people on both sides killed. The latter will leave a country to fend for itself. And I believe that that will leave Iraq to be a breeding ground for hate groups like the Taliban and al Qeada to do what they have don in the past, initially come in, establish peace and appear to save the day and then make life miserable for the Muslim people, especially women and children.
This is change for me. Change is difficult, but it is good.
This past week has been a pretty big one for me. I will try to get it all out, but this week there have been a few changes in the way I think and look at life. Now I have to say that all these changes didn’t really occur overnight or in the course of a week. I have been learning over months and years.
My work laptop crashed last week. That allowed me to slow down a bit and read some blogs a bit! Where to start…for the past few years I have had a strong interest in the Emerging Church. It is a philosophical and theological and lots of other “icals”. And I ran across a website for Emergent Nazarenes. There was a really cool post there that asked folks to share ideas about ways one can cultivate humility in their lives. One of the comments was by Monte. Well I knew this just had to be Monte Asbury, a pastor friend from the Nazarene church I grew up in. And sure enough it was! Monte is still pastoring in Washington, IA. And he has a lot of insightful things to say. And so I began to read his blog.
MONTE ASBURY CHANGED MY LIFE
Monte is one of those people that has a way of making huge impressions on you. Now I am sure if you ask Monte about me he will say that I was some kid that grew up in a church where he attended before he was a pastor. (And actually he will be MUC kinder and he will remember more than I think!) I am sure he knew who’s kid I was, but other than that I was some young kid and he was a married guy with children. He wasn’t a youth leader. He also might remember that I saw him again a few years ago at a Robbert Webber worship conference (I JUST discovered that Robert Webber died? OH MAN I’ll get back to that in a later post). We were both older. And he recommended a book to me: A New Kind of Christian. That was one of the best recommendations ever.
Monte Asbury had a HUGE impact on me when I was in high school. There was a gentlemen in our church that died of cancer. Bernie Herne. Bernie was a patron saint in our church. He was so Christ-like and holy. He was so cool, he was humble and gentle and loving. He is one of the folks that I identify with being sanctified and filled with the holy spirit. At the funeral many were quiet and mournful. Except for one. This one guy, he kept talking out load during parts of the service. Someone would talk about the life of Bernie and the love of Christ and this guy would proclaim, “yes” or “Amen”. And then someone sang a song and the message was that living here is alright and heaven must be cool too, but if they had chance to choose between the two they’d go home, to be with their Lord in heaven. AND THIS GUY, HE LOSES IT! He is shouting and almost hollering, “PRAISE GOD” and “AMEN.” I get teary-eyed just thinking about it. You see Bernie was at peace. He was home! He wasn’t in pain anymore. But more than that, he got to finally be in the presence of his Savior! He got to meet the Christ that he had faithfully served. I didn’t fully understand that. But Monte sure did. He got it. And it made him so happy to know that this guy who he called friend and brother finally went home where he belonged! Monte is another person who I think of when I think of what it means to be sanctified. That memory is burned into my mind. It was so powerful to me. Monte really understood something that I wanted to get. And not much has changed.
…is doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different or new result. If you go back to my very first post you will read about my work laptop crashing. You will read about me vowing to back up data. Well, guess what? My work laptop crashed yesterday.
So the question is did I lose everything or did I learn my lesson the first time around and backed up my data? Well, I am not too sure that the data is completely irrecoverable. But that isn’t the point is it? I did purchase software that would back up data. I installed it and even configured it. But work has these limitations. You can’t save certain file types. You can’t back up Outlook when it is running. And the list goes on and on.
So the answer is I had very little backed up. But I am not doing everything the same…I am BEGGING my boss to have IT do EVERYTHING they can to get the data off my hd. Which may involve spending money.
I did take the first step to do things differently in the future. I am encouraging the boss to entertain different ideas of backing up data.
I am insane today. But maybe more sane tomorrow. Well, not tomorrow because I will be going crazy hoping that they can get the data off my laptop tomorrow. But maybe soon.
It is September 11, 2007. What does NPR say about the significance of this day in history? That six years ago 2 jet liners “went off course.” And then they went on with the rest of the news…Umm, what?
In addition to the planes taking a wrong turn, they were hijacked, by terrorists and then purposefully flown into 2 different World Trade Center towers. And then they fell to the ground. And another plane crashed before it got to the Pentagon and penetrated the outer walls of the Pentagon. And finally the sacrificial take-down and crash of United Flight 93. A whole lot of people died that day. People from all over the world. Innocent people.
I guess those were minor details. Or boring.
America was attacked on September 11, 2001. I refuse to forget. I hope you won’t either. Heck, I can’t forget. I remember where I was…at work, watching the second plane hit and the towers fall. And then being glued to the TV for the next few weeks. One of the most terrifying images (and sounds) burned into my brain are of those that jumped from windows to their death. That still haunts me today.
I also remember who took responsibility-Bin Laden-who is the leader and founder of al-Qeada-who’s objectives include the end of foreign influence in Muslim countries and the creation of a new Islamic caliphate (Bin Laden’s ultimate intention?). This idea of caliphate is pretty huge. I invite you to read more about what Orson Scott Card has to say on this subject here-basically a caliph could unite the Muslim world and expand al-Qeada on a global scale-Islamic world domination. And believe me, uniting Muslims throughout the world whose primary intentions are to kill infidels…very bad.
I remember what countries were training terrorists (Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Jordan, Syria, etc). I remember what country refused to follow UN resolutions (Iraq); many resolutions were dismissed. I remember that EVERYONE agreed that there were WMD, even former President Clinton-and that Husssein would not let inspectors look in all places to prove otherwise. I remember the atrocities that were occurring under a dictator (Saddam Hussein). I also remember the lives that have been lost, the soldiers that have made ultimate sacrifices, a war mismanaged and a war that must be won in a country that must not be overtaken by an Islamifaciast group like al-Qeada or the Taliban.
I remember talking to a co-worker that had worked in a financial aid office. She said to NOT wait to pay back student loans! That they would wait, allow interest to accrue, apply fines and penalties and fees and wait some more. Then they would come after you with a vengeance. That was 7 years ago.
I remember the MidAmerica Nazarene University recruiters coming to my church, into my youth group, into my Sunday School class. I had felt called to ministry, to preach, to pastor a church. But neither I nor my family could afford to pay for me to go to college. I had no idea how I would afford to go to my church college that would train me for ministry and prepare me for pastoring. But the recruiters had an answer: Financial Aid, student grants and student loans. That was 16 years ago.
Now my wife and I have 2 student loans that are about $100,000 apiece. I have never been able to enter into ministry for many reasons, one being that no church would ever be able to afford to employ me where I could pay the school loans back. I’ll never forget the speech that my church history professor gave my junior year of college. He said, “75% of all Nazarene churches are 75 people or les. So if you have more than $5000 in loans the average church won’t pay you enough to pay them back.” Thanks prof. Williams. Why didn’t YOU visit my youth group?
I remember filing for bankruptcy. The bankruptcy judge asked if I had a doctorate with that kind of student loans. “Nope,” I replied, “I went to a private, religious college.” The credit card debt went away, but student loans are not easily forgiven in bankruptcy so the loans did not go away. That has been well over 8 years ago.
Now, for some reason, the US Department of Education wants their money back…and they want it pretty bad. I may be a day away from having the US Dept of Education garnish my check, @15% of my disposable income per paycheck for the rest of my life. Interest will still accrue. And that is only for one of the two loans.
In addition, the state is currently garnishing my check and my wife’s check to the total of 25% per person, per check. It is for a medical bill. We won’t be able to pay rent this month. We both have pay day loans out. We have one maxed out credit card. I have 2 401K loans that I am repaying. As I write this, my bank account is negative.
The Sunday after the Student Loan collectors started talking to me my friend, Mike called me. It was just after church and he invited me to a Dave Ramsey class. Of course I said yes. Thanks Mike.
There are a few positives. I have a great family. I have 4 boys. I have a great job. So does my wife. I am taking steps in the right direction. My good friend Bill is acting as our financial counselor, he has been great to keep us focused and encouraged-he even paid for my wife and I to attend Dave Ramsey’sFinancial Peace University classes. I have stopped my 401K contributions. No cable. No Internet. Of course it is because we owe them too. I plan to reduce the cell phone plans to the next plan down. We rent, but both of our minivans are paid for. I changed my tax exemptions to get more money back during the year instead of a refund The federal gov’t will take that anyway). I have been taking my lunch to work instead of eating out. One pay day loan is paid off. I have 1 401K loan that will be paid off by the end of the month. I won’t be giving to United Way next year. I have even applied for several part-time jobs and my wife has been taking extra duties on at her school-that will be extra money too. I have been in contact with the people I owe, trying to make a plan and trying to take control and be responsible.
And of course, I participated in my first Dave Ramsey class last night.
…whenever I go to my kid’s school. Now let me explain. My wife is a teacher in a very affluent school district. One of the perks is that she gets to bring her (our) kids into the district to be educated. That is awesome and my children LOVE the other kids and teachers. The education is of the highest quality.
But these families live in million dollar homes. I rent a duplex. They travel in brand new SUVs, expensive minivans and fast shiny sport cars. I drive a cheap minivan. It is old and it is paid for.
Not one person or persons have made me feel bad. No one points and laughs. No one stares and no one gives funny looks. But I am still an outsider. I do not live or hang out in their neighborhoods. I do not shop or eat in the ssame tores that they do. I am not part of their community.
Except of course, all our children go to school together.
I can accept that most of the issues are in my head. That I have the problem and not “them”. But this does not make me feel any better.
And then to make things worse this year is the first year in a middle school. New school. New kids. New parents.
I hated jr. high and high school. I remember that awkward, weird age. I was a geek, an outsider. I STILL have nightmares about going to the wrong class or skipping class because I couldn’t figure out my schedule! STILL!
And this week was no freaking different! It was meet the teacher night and I was given a schedule to follow. You simply go where the schedule states right? Well problem #1. I have twins therefore I have 2 schedules. No one else had 2 schedules. They are similar, but not the same. So first I have to figure out which classes to attend. I finally just choose one of the schedules and stick with it. I chose the schedule that had a technology class instead of the drama class. Then of course I wandered around looking for the right place to go.
Problem #2. The schedule changes from day to day. So even within one of the schedules I still had to figure out what classes I am supposed to be going to-what “day” it is supossed to be for this one night meet the teachers crap. So wouldn’t ya know it. I walk into the technology class and it is normally at the same time that the music class is-the music class that I had just met the teacher of… So I looked like a goober going to a class where there was no meeting of the teacher…it was the period before. While I was in that stupid music class. And then I was late for the class I was supossed to be meeting another teacher at!
I still feel out of place in a middle school. Stupid meet the tachers night. Stupid schedule. Stupid school.
…From a friend. First it didn’t have a title in the subject line…that is just a pet peeve of mine. I used to have a supervisor that didn’t even read emails without something in the subject line. But more importantly it was an email about God and finances. I have a strong faith in God and I’d like to be financially healthy. So I read on. Now it started off innocently enough…here read the beginning:
God is the biggest help in the World. I claim it for you – now claim it for me. God has more than a thousand Ways to provide for us, that we know nothing about. Here is your financial blessing! It’s a simple prayer, you got 30 Seconds?
Sure, I got 30 seconds…But then it goes on:
Don’t sleep on this…Someone recently read this for the first time and received exactly enough for a $0 balance on all credit cards. If you need a financial blessing, continue reading this e-mail.
It is at this point that I get VERY angry. I believe that God will provide all of my spiritual needs. But is He gonna pay off my bills? NO, he isn’t. Will He keep me from getting sued if I don’t pay my debt back? Nope. I don’t believe that is His responsibility. And then to talk about credit card debt? Don’t get me started!
God is not a cosmic ATM machine. He isn’t some magical money tree. And the thing is this email comes at a time when I am really struggling financially. The School Loan People really want their money. I think I went to the most freaking expensive school in the country, MNU. I don’t know if I can make the payment that they want or not. And there are always threats that go along with their request for repayment. But do I lay that on God? Well, maybe, but I still have a responsibility. I am still accountable for my own past choices
I believe that God cares about His creation. I believe that it is His desire that his people be blessed and live healthy lives. But is God gonna just let me do whatever I want, let me make bad descisions and then bail me out? No. I don’t believe that. I believe that God will honor my good intentions and my good stewardship with my finances. But God ain’t gonna make all the money I ever request fall out of the sky.
I was following a truck to work this morning when I saw the name in the web address on the back…It took me a couple of seconds to actually read the name:
student loans! That they would wait, allow interest to accrue, apply fines and penalties and fees and wait some more. Then they would come 
