The Last Time

At night I lay down with my five year old son and watch him go to sleep. For a time I did this only on occasion but later he ask for it every night. I began to think of this as an imposition because there were things that competed for my attention, not to mention the fact that I didn't really want to spend the time it took every night. It occurred to me however that there will come a time when he will be too old for this kind of a routine.

Also, it seems like last week that my little girl was in diapers. She's eight now and as such its been quite a while since I last changed one. This brings to mind that one day for both of my children I took a diaper off of them for the very last time and in so doing a door quietly closed to a part of their childhood; a childhood I'm already grieving over. The time will come when I will lay down with my son and we will look into each other's eyes as he drifts off to sleep; I will get up and go about my evening routine getting ready for bed, and never realize that that was the last time we will ever enjoy that particular routine. This reality really changes many "have to's" in family life to "get to's".

Life has a way of changing our outlook on things. I was driving into the Nashville airport one icy morning and a truck had slid on the ice and overturned right in front of the airport. There was a yellow sheet draped over the driver and I realized that his entire morning was a whole list of "last times" both for him and his family. What ever that family "had to" put up with before, I'd bet they would all love the opportunity to "get to" put up with it again one day.

We make a big deal about some last times such as the last time of being a certain age, or going to school, but I want to realize the small ones too, at least as much as a body can. In so doing I think that some of the mundaneness or unpleasantness of everyday life can more easily be embraced. So the next time one of your children spills his milk, or wakes you up afraid at three in the morning, or you are confronted with some other unpleasantness from a loved one, just remember that it might be the very last time it's ever going to happen. Listen for the door quietly closing and forever separating the way things were for you from the the way things are.

What do you think?

Trying to make a long distance call and having some problems, I decided to play around with my blog a little as I sit here and wait. I've always loved the "Inklings" blog and his posted photo, so I decided to imitate him by displaying a similar photo that I love.



I still like his better.

More Automation for Automobiles?

When I was young it seemed I was always in a hurry. I had the art of negotiating with traffic down to a science, and of course when negotiations failed, I resorted to blowing my horn.

Now I'm older and often look in my rear-view mirror to see what I use to look like ; tense face , frequent watch glances, and contempt for the guy in front of me who doesn't have to be anywhere for five years. Nowadays, when I do get in a hurry I find that it just takes too much effort to reach up and blow my horn all the time. That's why I invented a modification to perhaps the only thing not modified on the automobile since Henry Ford started the assembly line.

It seems we now have auto volume control, auto speed control, auto wipers, auto lights, auto-temp. control just to name a few; but we do not yet have auto-horn. The concept is simple enough. You install into your instrument panel a switch that causes your horn to blow automatically. Then when you see traffic slowing or stopping in front of you during your evening commute, you simply reach down and slip your horn into AUTO-BLOW, causing it to blow randomly, without too much dwell time of course, thus saving yourself all the effort of constantly reaching up every few minutes just to blow your horn.

Just so the reader will know, I don't have a patent. If I'm too lazy to blow my horn just think of the effort it would take to dial up my patent attorney; so if you're ambitious, feel free to get one (or not) and call your favorite Chinese manufacturer and put er into production. I'll buy one if it's less than five bucks, Promise.

The National Anthem

I think this is one of the best renditions of the Star Spangle Banner I've ever heard. It was filmed by someone holding a handheld video camera in a basket ball arena, and yet it is still bone chilling. Please go here to the site of Incog @Confessions of a closet Republican to have a listen.

Race Politics and Ideology

I grew up in a small town in rural Georgia. I can still remember walking past the water fountains in the court house; two of them side by side. Removed were the signs over them directing the thirsty person from which one to drink, but the the two fountains were still there almost as if monuments to a not so distant history of segregation.

As a child in the 60's I was too young to know the significance of two fountains; that there actually was a time when people, just because of the pigment in their skin, were treated differently; and by differently I mean badly.

Fast forward forty years and my how things have changed. America has progressed quite a bit; there is a Secretary of State, and a Supreme Court Justice, and a presumptive nominee for president, to name a few, with dark pigmented skin. One might conclude that racism is itself in the process of becoming history. This would be true too if racism were defined today as it was forty years ago; that definition being the oppression of blacks by whites. Many have discovered however that there is power to be gained by convincing blacks that not much has changed in the last half century. Since it is obvious that things have changed, the very word racism necessarily morphed into something totally different so that today it has a different application than did the same word in the sixties. It is now almost indistinguishable from the word ideology. Granted these two words have different meanings, but in the political realm on the topic of race relations they overlap and merge. This is evidenced by Bill Clinton, a white man, being called the first black president, and by Clarence Tomas, a black man, facing stiff opposition from blacks to a life time appointment to, I would argue, one of the most powerful positions in this land.

In conclusion, even though I voted for a black man for president (Alan Keys, I liked his polices) before doing so was cool, I can't help but to feel that I, and many others like me, will be seen as a racist because we oppose Obama due to his policies. If and when this happens I will have to remember to not become defensive because in the current sense of the word it might be true. It just goes to show that when old words get new meanings it causes confusion and communication breaks down; this I fear is something we can expect an abundance of as we make our way though this election season.

Bumper Sticker Thought

Following is a hodge podge of B.G. thinking reduced to a Bumper Sticker.

1. A bad education is evidenced by pride in knowledge; a good one by humility in fear of ignorance. (or better put: Better is the company of a smart person who thinks he's dumb, than a dumb person who thinks he's smart )

2. It's not nearly as good to be better off than someone, as it is bad to be worse off. (this one is in jest)

3. I wish I was half as compassionate as Liberals think they are.

5. A visionary without discipline is just a dreamer.

6. United we stand, so never disagree with Democrats.

7. I once saw a bumper sticker on a large SUV. It read: "I vote pro-environment". This got me to thinking of a greenie bumper sticker for my SUV: "If you can read this, you're polluting my planet"

8. Listening to Hillary's embellishment debacle I came up with a chant in case America has to defend herself while Hil's at the helm. "Hillary misspoke, and people croaked"

9. The world would be a much better place if everyone agreed with any one of it's inhabitants.

10. Weak leaders require weaker followers.

11. To Avoid being deceived, assume you have been.

12. Deceived leaders require deceived followers,
but deceived followers do not require deceived leaders.

13. Mercy is only as wonderful as sin is terrible.

14. It's one thing to say God loves you; it's quite another to say repent. Yet no-one can truly know the former without the ladder.

15. A bad education is evidenced by pride in knowledge; a good one by humility in fear of ignorance. (or better put: Better is the company of a smart person aware of his ignorance, than a dumb person who thinks he's smart )

A Juxtaposition

These are the words of a black pastor during a time when African-Americans had to drink from separate public water fountains, go to different schools, and sit in the back of the bus, in fact, who were being treated as less than human:

"Like an unchecked cancer, hate corrodes the personality and eats away its vital unity. Hate destroys a man's sense of values and his objectivity. It causes him to describe the beautiful as ugly and the ugly as beautiful, and to confuse the true with the false and the false with the true. "

These are the words of a pastor during a time when an African American is winning the Democrat Party primary election; the same party, incidentally, insistent during the days of the former pastor that African Americans stay at the back of the bus:

"No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme."

The former pastor was Dr. Martin Luther King, the latter, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright.

Because They Hate by Brigitte Gabriel

I've almost come to believe that any book on the threat of Islam is a must read. This one is no different.  The most poignant point Gabriel makes seems to be a common one among this genera.  It is that one need not wonder if the author is telling the truth, or has an agenda. No, the authors I've read are not simply asking us to listen to the them, they are asking us to listen to the  Muslims pouring out of their hate filled Friday morning pep-rallies, yelling Death to America.

Miss Gabriel is not only informative but she also draws you into the drama of a young life lived through a small nation's transition from peace to civil war. The first half reads much like an auto-biography in which she chronicles her life in a small-town in Lebanon. Lebanon's Civil war placed her in a bomb shelter from age 10 to 17. She later found work at a news agency in Israel, where she met her American husband and moved to the U.S.

I would recommend this book to the person not possessing the gumption to sit and read a 200 or so page documentary on the threats posed by militant Islam. Gabriel puts forth a human element in the Middle Eastern conflict as she describes daily life in a war torn country from a child's perspective. She, and her family, are touched in every way by war.  All receive injuries, she looses her first love to a bomb blast, sniper bullets are a daily reality, and they learn to survive, even though it meant eating weeds just outside of their shelter.

Perhaps the most enlightening aspect of the story is the contrast of cultures Gabriel is able to present. For although she was raised as a Christian, she was still raised in an Arab culture which meant that she was raised to hate Jews. But when her mother was seriously injured by shrapnel she found herself in an Israeli hospital where she received her first taste of Israeli life and compassion. Much of the remainder of her story is intertwined with comparisons of Arab and Western cultures. It is this comparison with an inside perspective that gives this book its biggest punch.

Also visit Mrs. Gabriel's activist organization American Congress for Truth (ACT).

Giving part II

Tigers got my back, one of my all time favorite blogs, just did an article on giving. I was going to leave a comment but decided to write a post. So I named it "Giving part II".

Since the beginning of "The Church", it seems that it has been misunderstood. There was a time when this bothered me dearly, but as I walk, struggle, climb, claw, and sometimes stroll along this path called life, things become more and more clear. Well of course the Church is misunderstood.

I think key to Jon's post on giving is his heart. Strange enough, three people could give the same amount, make the same sacrifice to do so, and have three different motivations. One could give for the purpose of receiving some blessing from God; another to assuage some personal guilt; while yet another could give out of a simple willingness to be obedient.

So who is the focus of the first person that gave?... or the second? I would say it is the giver himself. Ultimately it is not giving at all put a purchase, or an investment if you will. There's no obedience; just a plan or strategy. But Jon spoke of giving and expecting nothing in return. How can a man buy his salvation from a Holy and Just God anyway? No, he gave out of obedience, and that obedience not to a slave driver, or bully, but rather to an also Merciful and Holy God.

To a world who's God is money, this makes no sense. It begs the question: "what's in it for me?". While the Robert Tiltans of the world live large preying on this idolatry, others hold the "Gospel for Prophets" up as a hollow and shallow excuse to comfort themselves in their own rejection of God, and his son Jesus who is their only hope.

Man looks on the outside, but God looks at the heart, so ultimately the heart and its motivations is key to everything the believer does; a fact that has and always will cause the world to misunderstand His Body.

What to Say When, You Don't Have Nothing to Say

Well i'ts like... I don't know man. You know? It's kinda like, you know man? Like, I don't know: like this is freaking me out man; like, you know man? Hey, like dude..., like see what I'm sayin? Like man you know what i'm tryin to say man, like I don't know man; you know? Hey, like you know man, like what I'm tryin to say man, like... like... like... whatever man, that's all I'm tryin to say man; it's like what-ever dude.