The new age of electric wheelchairs

It was a fantasticly, beautiful evening yesterday when I got off of work, so I decided to go for a run. I was moving good and feeling good about myself. I got towards the end of my run and I noticed these two ladies going down the street on those Electric Wheelchairs. I noticed that their wheelchairs were really moving fast and I started thinking about how amazing that technology was and how much better it must be to press a joystick as opposed to use your arms to turn the wheels every step of the way. I also thought how thankful I was that I could walk and run....AND THEN it hit me.... "A.J., those ladies are PASSING YOU. You are running and the ladies in the wheelchairs are passing you." Maybe I was wrong and they have it right.....electric wheelchairs are the way to go. How embarrassing! All I could do was laugh.

Archeologist finds 3,000-year old Hebrew text

These pictures are from an article on CNN.com about an archeologist that finds a 3,000 year old Hebrew text. The text dates back a millennium before the Dead Sea Scrolls to the time of King David. This is a pretty exciting find. I do not believe that God will ever give us massive amounts of physical evidence to back up the words of Scripture. He requires our faith. However, things like this make the Scripture come alive and remind me that its not some fairy tale, its not just a story, these people were real just like you and I. They walked the earth, lived, breathed, ate, drank, loved. The evidence is plain, it is right before our eyes everyday. We do not need pottery shards with Hebrew to believe, but we serve a God who is gracious enough to give us these tiny extra glimpses into his reality.

Casting the Ballot

I performed my American duty this morning-I cast my ballot. I cast my ballot and I took an eternity to do it. I cannot recall the last time I was so conflicted about something as I was about this decision. This is the point where every staunch Baptist gasps and exclaims, "Are you serious? Didn't you know that if you're a Christian there is only one acceptable ticket to vote for and it starts with a "Re" and ends with a "Publican" I think that's the reason I am most conflicted...why is a republican ticket the "Christian ticket?" I can promise you I am not just spouting off ideas I have not thought through or things I have just heard other people say. I have agonized over this for months, wrestling with both sides of every issue in my heart since the tickets were announced. I have had endless conversations with people on both sides and people on the fence all of whom I respect very much. I think most Christians cast their ballot based on two key issues (both of which are important issues): abortion and marriage. Now lets look at this for a second. We want the government to regulate laws in these two areas that prevent other people (most of which are not Christians) from doing these things. We want the government to regulate Christian morals and tell people what they can and cannot do and yet what are Christians doing to protect the sanctity of marriage and the lives of the unborn? Christians have as high a divorce rate as the secular world. Christians, rather than suffer the shame of admitting they are pregnant or that they have a child who is pregnant will sneak in the cover of night and "take care" of the problem. If we as believers are motivated by neither law nor our salvation through Jesus to act counter-culture, what nerve do we have to expect the government to make laws that force others to do we do not do? Now I realize this is an over generalization, but this is still a real issue to consider. When have laws ever changed anyone? I mean we of all people should know that. We have the life of Israel right before us in the Word we hold dear reminding us that the law can't and was never meant to change hearts....Jesus changes hearts. And unless hearts are changed people will find a way. Do we want the government to regulate these things so that we can sit back and wring our hands and say our job is done? Do we want this so that we do not have to love our neighbor as ourself?

In many of my conversations with others more informed than myself or even others on the other side of the issue (and this is important because what good is it to only converse with those on "your side" of an issue) I have been asked, "What of the importance of helping other people? What about giving to the poor? What about building up a city and fighting for people's jobs and their health? Doesn't it seem as if these things line up much more with what Jesus spent his entire earthly ministry teaching about? Which candidate would we vote for if these things were important to us?

And if we were being honest with ourselves and we really were voting for a candidate based on morality, would John McCain be the best choice? Which candidate has been divorced? Which candidate left his wife for a much younger woman? Which candidate seems like he upholds "our family values"? I am not trying to judge the candidates, I am only trying to provide myself and others some honest perspective.

After reading this it may seem that you would know who I voted for, but you won't. I am not solid enough on any of these things, they are simply things I have been truly wrestling with. You want to know why I think most Christians have very little passion or conviction or knowledge about issues? Most have simply regurgetated what we have heard from someone else and never explored the other side with an open mind.

Ultimately the Lord is in charge of all of this. Paul is clear, "there is no authority except from God, and those that exist are instituted by God. For government is GOD'S SERVANT."

Birthdays

My roommate's birthday is just around the clock and I could not be more excited. What a funny and gracious thing, to take a day to celebrate the life of another human being. Birthday's are one of those sacred things in life that make us feel significant and valued. They are a chance for friends and family (and due to the introduction of Facebook even acquaintances or strangers) to take one full day and acknowledge and celebrate your life and value. We should do this more, ya know? We should celebrate others, celebrate their lives and their existence. Once a year we are reminded that we are alive, that we were born and that that is significant.
So in honor of this birthday we are taking an exciting trip. We are headed to my sweet East Coast. Tomorrow morning we are flying out to Atlanta to stay with my sister and Trey and from there we will head to South Carolina to the Clemson game in hopes the Tigers can turn things around for Melanie's birthday and my pride. It is going to be so fun. Melanie has never seen a Clemson game and she has never seen a true Fall season. We will tailgate, tour Atlanta, eat good food, play with dogs, and walk around the campus that I love so much and haven't seen in two years.
Here's to celebrating the life of another!

the weight of relationships

This is an excerpt from C.S. Lewis' The Weight of Glory. It is a heavy, thought-provoking idea that he presents on the weight of human relationships. It will make you evaluate every relationship you have ever had and every way you have ever acted towards another.

"the load, or weight, or burden of my neighbor's glory should be laid daily on my back, a load so heavy that only humility can carry it, and the backs of the proud will be broken. It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible gods and goddesses, to remember that the dullest and most uninteresting person you talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship, or else a horror and corruption such as you now meet, if at all, only in a nightmare. All day long we are, in some degree, helping each other to one or other of these destinations. It is in the weight of these overwhelming possibilities, it is with the awe and circumspection proper to them, that we should conduct all our dealings with one another, all friendships, all loves, all play, all politics. There are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilization-these are mortal, and their life is to ours as the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit-immortal horrors or everlasting splendors. This does not mean that we are to be perpetually solemn. We must play. But our merriment must be of that kind which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously-no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption. And our charity must be a real and costly love, with deep feeling for the sins in spite of which we love the sinner-no mere tolerance or indulgence which parodies love as flippancy parodies merriment. Next to the Blessed Sacrament itself, your neighbor is the holiest object presented to your senses."

I like this song. It reminds me how fleeting earthly things are, how important, yet how difficult, earthly relationships are. Everything about our experience here on earth is coming to an end, its not a matter of if, but of WHEN. This is true of human relationships, the same as for anything else. They are the stuff that a good and full life is made up of. There is something deep and spiritual about them....knowing someone, being known, sitting with them, taking in life with them. For me this song reveals the difficultly of human relationships: the preciousness and value they add to life, the joy of being known and the awareness that if it were otherwise life would not be as good and then the flip-side of letting them go when it is time.

They were sitting
They were sitting on the strawberry swing
Every moment was so precious

They were sitting
They were talking under strawberry swing
Everybody was for fighting
Wouldn't wanna waste a thing

Cold, cold water bring me round
Now my feet won't touch the ground
Cold, cold water what ya say?
When it's such…
It's such a perfect day
It's such a perfect day

I remember
We were walking up to strawberry swing
I can't wait until the morning
Wouldn't wanna change a thing

People moving all the time
Inside a perfectly straight line
Don't you wanna curve away?
When it's such…
It's such a perfect day
It's such a perfect day

Now the sky could be blue
I don't mind
Without you it's a waste of time

Could be blue
I don’t mind
Without you it’s a waste of time

Could be blue,
could be grey
without you I’m just miles away

could be blue
I don’t mind

Without you it’s a waste of time

Mouseketeer Part II

After the daring rescue of mouse 1 a few weeks ago, the coast has been clear. I began to think that things were safe and that the mouse and his friends had heeded my advice, but alas, no such luck. I was sitting at my desk yesterday when I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I looked up to find a mouse scooting across my floor toward the bathroom. I jumped up, grabbed my tupperware container (because thats what the pros do I'm sure, to trap mice) and ran towards the bathroom. I looked everywhere...no mouse. It was like he disappeared into thin air, or a mouse hole maybe. The janitor brought me another one of those dang sticky traps, but I refuse to use it. I need to find some of those no kill traps. I will not pull another mouse off one of those things. It was tragic. I hope for the mouses sake that it is not the same one.

TV's 'Mr. Clean' dies at 92

LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- House Peters Jr., a TV actor who became the original Mr. Clean in Procter & Gamble's commercials for household cleaners, died Wednesday. He was 92.

Peters died of pneumonia at the Motion Picture and Television Fund Hospital in Los Angeles, said his son, Jon Peters.

The elder Peters' most memorable role came as Mr. Clean -- a muscular man with a bald head, a hoop earring and a no-nonsense attitude toward dirt and grime. From the late 1950s and into the early 1960s, Peters Jr. helped advertise the famous household cleaner with the trademark jingle, "Mr. Clean, Mr. Clean."

Just trying to keep you udated on what is happening in our world!