I mispell things!
i love dilbert.
i love people who are passionate about something. truthfully it doesn’t really matter to me if what they are passionate about is just plain stupid. i would rather be around someone who is passionate about believing something that is complete idiotic and wrong than i would be around someone who is right but has no passion for what they believe.
pam, my wife, found such a passionate person in one of her classes last friday. pam is presently taking courses at l.s.u. towards getting her doctorate in speech language pathology (a very noble profession). last week her professor announced that one of the students would be leaving the class here soon. she didn’t explain why so pam didn’t really know what was going on. this week pam got to class early and saw the student who would be leaving and therefore she decided to ask the young lady why she would be leaving. well it turns out that the young co-ed isn’t really a student at all yet. she’s from germany and has her bachelor’s degree in special education with an emphasis on speech pathology and she has her masters in speech pathology. awhile back she was trying to figure out if she wanted to go after a ph.d. or not. so she did what anyone would do when they were trying to determine if they would go after another degree or not … she started translating english speech pathology papers into german. in particular she started translating the work of pam’s professor at l.s.u.
while doing this the young german lady decided she had to get to know this professor. she was so enthralled by the writing of the speech pathology prof that she knew she would never be satisfied until she had the chance to go “soak up” the presence of the professor. the young co-ed told her parents she was going to move to america for 6 months just so she could hang out with the professors – a woman that neither the co-ed nor the co-ed’s family knew anything about. you can probably guess how that went over. even without here parents’ blessing she was still convinced that she needed to come spend time with this professor so at her own expense she moved over to america this past september. since september she has been hanging around the professor as much as she could just to learn from her. she leaves to go back to germany here soon.
that’s passion. i love that.
just for the fun of it i’ll send you to another passionate person. miss msdonald is an unknown person who has made her own mcdonald’s costume and goes around to various mcdonald’s restaurants. she does this just because she loves mcdonald’s. i don’t really understand how anyone can like mcdonald’s but i do respect the fact that she is so passionate about her poor choice in fast food restaurant loyalty.
what in the world is going on with march madness? my bracket has gone bezzerk. thanks allot l.s.u., connecticut, boston college, wake forest, kansas, syracuse, gonzaga, and oklahoma. basketball is a nice round ball and therefore should be easier to predict but NO! i’m presently at the bottom side of our little bracket competition and that’s not the way that it’s supposed to be.
steve at ragamuffin ramblings decided to retell the story of john 4:1-42 and he did an amazing job with it. you can read his full post here. it’s a retelling of the “woman at the well” and it really floors me. he changed the samaritan woman into a homosexual guy and then told the story from that situation. it does a great job of pointing our how “shocking” the gospel is.
i have a strong belief in the sanctity and dignity of human life – all human life. for me this dignity comes for humanity being made in the “image of GOD.” that image is too sacred to be treated with disregard. my opposition to abortion comes out of this belief. yet, i belief that a focus on the dignity of human life requires more than just trying to keep people from aborting fetuses. it means protecting all human life. thus we have to take care of those who are in need and protect the “image” by meeting those needs. it also means standing up against those who end human life just become it means there needs or desires. that why i have two areas that i want bring to your attention.
SIDE NOTE – 12:22 p.m. a state judge in florida has temporarily blocked the removal of terry schiavo’s feeding tube. it’s still up to the federal government to do something decisive.
here are a few pictures of the minor prophet worship stations we had set up during the view:
habakkuk
zephaniah
nahum
i went to another varitas lecture tonight. this one was by john kilner on bioethics and was quite good again. unfortunately it was also the last lecture so thus ends my 2005 varitas experience.
montana, my basset hound, my be the best stretcher in the world. a single stretch can last up to five minutes with her. she does such a good job at stretching that i usually feel better after just watching her stretch.
BTW, once again i loved the worship stations at the view last night. i am constantly amazed by what some of you guys and girls are able to do.
i recently ran across this u.n. anti-land mine video. while, i don’t think the u.n. is the answer to the world’s problems (especially in light of recent revelations in regards to u.n. peace keepers in the congo) i do have to agree with them on this. getting rid of the use of land-mines would be a great thing. this video helps to make that point.
i got to go to one of the veritas lectures tonight. tonight’s lecture was on “is there scientific evidence for an intelligent creator of the universe?” by dr. walter bradley. i enjoyed the lecture quite a bit.
of course, that’s the problem too. i love doing this stuff but i’m not the one who needs to be doing it. i have to start training and developing a tech team that can take these tasks over, set the up, and run them during an event. i have to find people who care about these things as much as i do. that’s the real issue. i have to find people who are convinced that the technical aspects of a worship service are incredibly important. i need people who are passionate about using technology to help people worship. it scares me to give up control of this but it has to be done because i need to be spending time with kids rather than making sure a cable is hooked up properly.
i recently found this at “cat’s cradle and i had to post it because it is amazing. i get so jealous of people who think like this. i love her outlook on grace. i’m not sure about you but i’ve been a couple of the people listed below and i have definitely worried about JESUS saying the things listed below (even though I know in my head that HE wouldn’t).
… to the woman at the well. “Well, first you have to make a full confession of everything you’ve done and then we’ll talk. ”
… to the woman with the hemorrhage. “Don’t touch me. You’ll get me all dirty and contaminated.”
… to the Canaanite woman. “I don’t care what you say, the gentiles are still dogs and dogs should be kept outside, not under the table.”
… to the thief on the cross. “Since you were a thief, it’s okay. I’ll square it with Dad. Now if you’d been a homosexual it would be a totally different story.”
… to the 5,000. “Ok, here’s lunch, but first I have a sermon to give here and then the boys will be passing out commitment cards for you to sign. No signature, no lunch.”
… to Peter, floundering in the water. “Pete, Pete, Pete. Hasn’t anybody taught you how to swim?”
… to Mary, meeting him on the road just after Lazarus’ death. ” Well, everybody dies sometime, and I had some very important business to attend to. I just couldn’t fit a visit into my schedule before now.”
… to Martha, bustling about the kitchen and fussing about Mary’s sitting down on the job. “Mary, get your lazy butt up and go act like a normal woman. Shame on you for forgetting your place like that!”
… to the rich young man. “Hey, salvation may be free but it ain’t cheap. But I would like some sort of commitment from you — 10% or so would work. You can see the guy who takes care of the purse, Judas.”
… to the scribes and Pharisees who were trying to trap him. “I’m behind you, fellas. Those rules are there to be obeyed to the letter, and if you can make a little profit off them, so much the better.”
… to the people on the mount, “Listen. I’m telling you to love your neighbor, but make sure he isn’t *one of them*, if you know what i mean.”
… to the crowd, “Do unto others before they do unto you.”
… to Mary, his mother, at a party, “Bug off, Ma. If these lazy jerks can’t plan adequately for this, why should I pull their irons out of the fire for them?”
Of course, he didn’t say any of this. That, I believe, is why we have the gospels, the “good news” not “the good news — and the bad news.”