There is a really nasty stomach virus working its way through North Texas. The bug got into my system last night and wreaked considerable havoc. I thought, of course, of the verse in Deuteronomy. Then I prostrated myself before God, just as I had at the beginning of the forty days and nights. I ate no food; I drank no water. (Deut. 5) Hopefully this will not last any where close to forty days and nights. The scouting report is that the virus lasts 2 days if you go to the doctor. If you let it run it’s course it lasts 48 hours. I am sitting at home waiting for this to run it’s natural course. I thought of how really lousy I have felt today. And then I realized how much I take for granted the fifty weeks or so out of every year when I feel good or even great. Sure I have the usual little aches and pains
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Regular readers of the humble ramblings know how much I love dog friend Hannah. She is such a calming influence that I often call her “furry Prozac”. A fun article in Parade Magazine by “Dog Whisperer” Cesar Millan got me to thinking about how much I could learn in my Christian journey from my canine companion. Sanctification is not a word that Hannah would understand. Sadly, it is not a word that a lot of Christians understand either. It simply means the process of becoming more like Jesus. And just like everything else in this journey we can not do that apart from Christ. I will give you Cesar’s thoughts on life lessons that we can learn from dogs in italics. I will add my little spiritual postscript to each of his comments.  Live in the moment. Cesar – People often wonder how I get such quick results with the dogs I rehabilitate. The answer is simple: Dogs live in the moment. They don’t
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Today I saw one more reason to be concerned about the future of America. I picked up the paper and read that Mall Cop was the number one movie in the United States last week. I can’t even process that. Another story made me angry, then sad and finally blessed and encouraged me. That is a lot of plot twists for one news article. If you live outside of the Dallas area you might not have caught up with this story. The Dallas Academy girls basketball team played a road game January 13th against The Covenant School. The girls from Dallas Academy did not expect to win. They haven’t won a game in four seasons. But they did not expect what happened. The box score shows that Covenant scored 35 points in the first quarter before building a 59-0 lead at the half. The score after three quarters was 88-0. The final score was Covenant 100, Dallas Academy 0. Yep. Covenant threw a shut
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Somewhere along the way I got the notion that studying theology was a bit like flossing. Something you had to do whether you liked it or not. And some of the theologians I encountered did not seem like anyone I would actually want to be around on purpose. I made the crack that theologians were to joy in Christ what nutritionists were to enjoying cheesecake. They both took something full of delight and made you feel mostly bad about it. Yet something is changing in my life. I am really seeing the need for a solid theological basis for what I believe. I wrote an ode (cross off “Bucket List” Item Number 87 –  Write Ode) to our lack of theological depth. This classic appears in my book When Bad Christians Happen To Good People. For the music director. A psalm of parody sung to Sam Cooke’s Wonderful World. All rise. Don’t know much about theology, Don’t know much Christology. Don’t know much
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Travel can be wonderful. But business travel is generally more like death by paper cuts. Last week I landed and was still a bit famished even after the eight tiny pretzels snack I was graciously given in flight. So I began to peruse the food options. I spotted a smoothie stand and that sounded perfect. So I headed over and made my pick. “I will have the Peanut Butter Zone smoothie.” The worker turned and looked at the menu as if that order was a complete surprise. Maybe she thought she was being pranked for one of those cable shows. Perhaps I was making stuff up. She carefully examined the ingredients on the menu board and turned to me. “We ain’t got no peanut butter.” Disappointed but still determined I pushed on. “Then I will have the Protein Power Berry smoothie.” Slowly she turned to see what ingredients might be in this order which also appeared to take her by complete surprise. “We ain’t got no protein powder.”
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I know my tens of readers are anxious. Where has the sporadic wisdom and accidental insight been this week? I whipped up a fresh blog on Monday and tried to post it. An annoying sound effect told me my effort was denied. I tried again by pushing the send button harder. The sound effect mocked me. My technical guru Robin gave me some fixes. Nothing but sound effects (I added a couple). Now we are getting into actual computer stuff. Robin is sending me things to try written, apparently, in Sanskrit. Meanwhile your humble rambler is stomping in front of the laptop banging two stones together trying to get a spark. “Thor no get fire! Blog no work!” So here we sit. Robin is trying to communicate to unfrozen cave man and the wandering tens of readers are left without a bad example. While we continue to resolve this issue allow me repost a previous article (I can do that) to tide you over until
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Yesterday I was driving home lost in thought. I have been teaching about grace and I was thinking about the tension between grace and law. Flashing red lights behind me gave me a good and unwanted illustration. I had to smile at the incongruity of thinking about grace and getting caught by the law. I had been a traffic sinner. The law said I was guilty of going over the posted speed limit. I confessed my sin. I tried for grace from the officer. “I have gone twenty-five years without a ticket,” I said affably. “Sorry,” he answered as he handed me the ticket. He was not in the mood for grace and, to be honest, I didn’t deserve it. So there was an expensive illustration of the law without grace. The law showed me my wrongdoing. A penalty was assessed and had to be paid. Without grace I had to pay the penalty. So I will write a check to the city of Garland
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