Words of Wisdom

Over at the BHT, Jim Nicholson posted this as he marked his 46th birthday...

For all my life, I believed that the message of the gospel was this: God loves us so much that he will let us go our own way, walk away from his will, and make a mess out of our lives, and when we hit the bottom and have no place else to turn, he will come to us and bring us back to himself. And all of that is true, all of that is in the gospel that Jesus proclaimed to us.

But now I realize that the gospel is something far more mysterious, something far more disturbing, something far more difficult to accept, because the message of the gospel is also this: God loves us so much that he will let us try to walk in his ways, let us do the right things and be the right people, and our lives will still end up a mess. And when we reach the place where we realize just how useless our efforts to be righteous and pure and good are, and how God has absolutely no use for them, he will come to us and bring us back to himself.

I am convinced that God is as weary of our efforts to be fine, upstanding, moral people as we (if we are honest with ourselves) are. And I’ve reached a place where I’m no longer willing to make those efforts any longer. I’m tired of trying to do what God has already done for me. I’m tired of moving toward Someone I can never reach, especially when he is already standing right next to me all the time.
Posted by: Jim Nicholson

Eric

2011

My son will graduate from High School in 2011. That seems weird for some reason. My
daughter will graduate in 2012. Still weird. But here's some things put together by Beloit College that makes us born in the 60's go "hmmmm...."

THE BELOIT COLLEGE MINDSET LIST FOR THE CLASS OF 2011

Most of the students entering college this fall, members of the Class of 2011, were born in 1989. For them, Alvin Ailey, Andrei Sakharov, Huey Newton, Emperor Hirohito, Ted Bundy, Abbie Hoffman, and Don the Beachcomber have always been dead.

1. What Berlin wall?
2. Humvees, minus the artillery, have always been available to the public.
3. Rush Limbaugh and the "Dittoheads" have always been lambasting liberals.
4. They never "rolled down" a car window.
5. Michael Moore has always been angry and funny.
6. They may confuse the Keating Five with a rock group.
7. They have grown up with bottled water.
8. General Motors has always been working on an electric car.
9. Nelson Mandela has always been free and a force in South Africa.
10. Pete Rose has never played baseball.
11. Rap music has always been mainstream.
12. Religious leaders have always been telling politicians what to do, or else!
13. "Off the hook" has never had anything to do with a telephone.
14. Music has always been "unplugged."
15. Russia has always had a multi-party political system.
16. Women have always been police chiefs in major cities.
17. They were born the year Harvard Law Review Editor Barack Obama announced he might run for office some day.
18. The NBA season has always gone on and on and on and on.
19. Classmates could include Michelle Wie, Jordin Sparks, and Bart Simpson.
20. Half of them may have been members of the Baby-sitters Club.
21. Eastern Airlines has never "earned their wings" in their lifetime.
22. No one has ever been able to sit down comfortably to a meal of "liver with some fava beans and a nice Chianti."
23. Wal-Mart has always been a larger retailer than Sears and has always employed more workers than GM.
24. Being "lame" has to do with being dumb or inarticulate, not disabled.
25. Wolf Blitzer has always been serving up the news on CNN.
26. Katie Couric has always had screen cred.
27. Al Gore has always been running for president or thinking about it.
28. They never found a prize in a Coca-Cola "MagiCan."
29. They were too young to understand Judas Priest's subliminal messages.
30. When all else fails, the Prozac defense has always been a possibility.
31. Multigrain chips have always provided healthful junk food.
32. They grew up in Wayne's World.
33. U2 has always been more than a spy plane.
34. They were introduced to Jack Nicholson as "The Joker."
35. Stadiums, rock tours and sporting events have always had corporate names.
36. American rock groups have always appeared in Moscow.
37. Commercial product placements have been the norm in films and on TV.
38. On Parents' Day on campus, their folks could be mixing it up with Lisa Bonet and Lenny Kravitz with daughter Zöe, or Kathie Lee and Frank Gifford with son Cody.
39. Fox has always been a major network.
40. They drove their parents crazy with the Beavis and Butt-head laugh.
41. The "Blue Man Group" has always been everywhere.
42. Women's studies majors have always been offered on campus.
43. Being a latchkey kid has never been a big deal.
44. Thanks to MySpace and Facebook, autobiography can happen in real time.
45. They learned about JFK from Oliver Stone and Malcolm X from Spike Lee.
46. Most phone calls have never been private.
47. High definition television has always been available.
48. Microbreweries have always been ubiquitous.
49. Virtual reality has always been available when the real thing failed.
50. Smoking has never been allowed in public spaces in France.
51. China has always been more interested in making money than in reeducation.
52. Time has always worked with Warner.
53. Tiananmen Square is a 2008 Olympics venue, not the scene of a massacre.
54. The purchase of ivory has always been banned.
55. MTV has never featured music videos.
56. The space program has never really caught their attention except in disasters.
57. Jerry Springer has always been lowering the level of discourse on TV.
58. They get much more information from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert than from the newspaper.
59. They're always texting 1 n other.
60. They will encounter roughly equal numbers of female and male professors in the classroom.
61. They never saw Johnny Carson live on television.
62. They have no idea who Rusty Jones was or why he said "goodbye to rusty cars."
63. Avatars have nothing to do with Hindu deities.
64. Chavez has nothing to do with iceberg lettuce and everything to do with oil.
65. Illinois has been trying to ban smoking since the year they were born.
66. The World Wide Web has been an online tool since they were born.
67. Chronic fatigue syndrome has always been debilitating and controversial.
68. Burma has always been Myanmar.
69. Dilbert has always been ridiculing cubicle culture.
70. Food packaging has always included nutritional labeling.

Copyright 2007 by Beloit College, 700 College St., Beloit, Wisconsin 53511

Eric

I Hate Cats

Not just because I'm allergic to them, I just don't like cats. Not a cat person.

But these are hilarious!

I am in ur chare

LOL Cats

Meme Cats


Cat. The other white meat!

Eric

Check Your Facts!

I was a reporter once. Not a journalist. Just a reporter and a news anchor for a newstalk radio station. I was told to be objective and check my facts...over, and over, and over, and over, and over.

Unfortunately, some people put politics and ideology ahead of good, honest reporting.

There is an answer.

Humiliate these people. Or as Rush Limbaugh used to say, "illustrate absurdity by being absurd."

The Dissident Frogman shows us how.

Eric

Us vs. Them

Long ago, when I was a young, hip youth worker, I ran a Campus Life club for some Jr. Highers here in Redding. As part of my ministry (I was on part-time staff...raising my own support), I was required to attend a leadership training meeting where we devised a basic curriculum for Jr. High groups within Campus Life. Something one of the guys from Sacramento said has stuck with me from way back in 1992. He worked with inner-city youths in the downtown Sacto area. He said that people in the world will continue to move apart...rich v. poor, haves vs have-nots, Republicans vs. Democrats, conservatives vs. liberals, Christians vs. everybody else.

I think he had a moment of prophetic clarity.

We expect a level of Us vs. Them mentality as the each big group (see the list in the previous paragraph) continue to fragment into smaller and smaller groups who's like-mindedness narrows considerably eventually coming to a point where the only group you have is a bunch of individuals.

In this post Jared Wilson finds this has reared its ugly head within the Body of Christ and it disgusts him. (HT to BHT)

I have to agree.

It's like the old Bill Cosby routine where he's talking about the movie "Hud". In his routine he's talking about two cowboys who, in the movie, are shooting the cows because of hoof and mouth disease and, according to Cosby, their conversation goes something like...

"Why are we shooting these cows?"
"Because they have hoof and mouth disease."
"What's hoof and mouth disease?"
"See that foam around their mouths?"
"Yeah"
"That's hoof and mouth disease."
"Oh"
"Looks like you got some on you too...BANG!"

Something like that...

Eric

Johnny Cash Says...

"God's gonna cut you down.."

(HT to Think Christian)



Eric

Sex Chart

Are you feeling randy tonight? Want to know if you'll be committing sin when you follow through on your urges?

Follow this chart!




I guess I've been sinning this whole time...except for 2X. (I have 2 kids!)

Eric

*

That's right.

Bonds Ties Aaron

* says it all.

Unfortunately that is the new symbol of "excellence" in sports since McGwire. I hope Baroid pulls a hammy and A-Rod brings it.

Signed,

A Hank Aaron Fan from back in the day...

Eric

Daily Calendars

Every year I get a daily calendar. The kind where you can read something pithy, interesting, educational or funny. At work, we have one that deals with survival. Like if you're attacked by a heard of elephants or are submerged in a car or maybe caught in an avalanche. It also gives you tips on how to make tourniquets, slings, pine needle soup and other such stuff one might need should one find themselves lost in the woods out of cell phone range.

But this last weekends tip takes the cake.

"How to Foil a UFO Abduction"

Here they are...

1. Control your thoughts.
Do not think of anything violent or upsetting - the extraterrestrial biological entity (EBE) may have the ability to read your mind.

2. Resist verbally.
Firmly tell the EBE to leave you alone.

3. Resist mentally.
Picture yourself enveloped in a protective shield of white light, or in a safe place. Telepathic EBE's may get the message.

4. As a last resort, go for the EBE's eyes - you will not know what its other more sensitive areas are.


Someone has been listening to Art Bell too much...

Eric