This is Why...

I don't have a "fish" emblem on my car. :-)

A man was being tailgated by a stressed out woman on a busy boulevard. Suddenly, the light turned yellow, just in front of him. He did the right thing, stopping at the crosswalk, even though he could have beaten the red light by accelerating through the intersection.

The tailgating woman was furious and honked her horn, screaming in frustration, as she missed her chance to get through the intersection, dropping her cell phone and makeup.

As she was still in mid-rant, she heard a tap on her window and looked up into the face of a very serious police officer. The officer ordered her to exit her car with her hands up.

He took her to the police station where she was searched, fingerprinted, photographed, and placed in a holding cell. After a couple of hours, a policeman approached the cell and opened the door. She was escorted back to the booking desk where the arresting officer was waiting with her personal effects.

He said ‘I’m very sorry for this mistake.’ You see, I pulled up behind your car while you were blowing your horn, flipping off the guy in front of you, and cussing a blue streak at him. I noticed the ‘What Would Jesus Do?’ bumper sticker, the ‘Choose Life!’ license plate holder, the ‘Follow Me to Sunday-School!’ bumper stickers, and the chrome-plated Christian fish emblem on the trunk; so naturally…I assumed you had stolen the car.

Lawsuit Abuse

Here is a lawsuit that screams why we need a "loser pays" system. It seems that Michael Newdow (California athiest) who has sued over this stuff before is at it again. He is suing to have the words "so help me God" removed from the inauguration oath. He along with the other people who are plantiffs in the case are saying they will have to choose between not watching the inauguration or being alienated. Really?! You have nothing else to worry about?? In all honesty, it should be up to Obama to say the words or not say the words. If he doesn't want to, don't. Anyone other than the POTUS-elect should have absolutely no say in the matter. After all, they're not the ones who have to live up to the oath. I have very little patience for people who waste our judicial system's precious time with frivilous lawsuits like this. And to top it off, the Justice Department will have to waste MY tax dollars defending this drivel.

Ultimately, the guy really needs our prayers. I think for him to be such a hard-core athiest, he must have had some sort of really negative interaction with Christians somewhere along the line.

Read more about it here: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/12/31/inauguration.lawsuit/index.html

Concert Review, Movie Review and More...

Christmas is winding down and we're preparing to brave the crowd at Macy's tomorrow but before doing that, I thought I'd post a few reviews.

First off, the Trans Siberian Orchestra concert last Saturday night. All I can say is WOW! The show this group puts on is spectacular. The lights and sounds were a sight and sound to behold. I love TSO's music and they did their entire Christmas Eve Sarajevo album which is my favorite so that was an added bonus. I'm also impressed by the stamina this group has. They did the entire first half running around the stage and never took a "real" intermission. During a usual intermission time, they introduced the whole gang. Then it was on to round two where they blew things up. Gotta love that. Pyrotechnics, real fire and lasers. It was amazing. Anyone who loves TSO's music should put this concert at the top of their list next time they are in town.

On to the movie review...Sarah and I saw "Marley and Me" this afternoon as our annual Christmas Day movie. It is a very cute and well done movie but any of my friends who cry easily at movies (you know who you are) should avoid this movie or at least the ending. If you've read the book, you know what I'm talking about. If not, I'm not going to spoil it. It is worth seeing but be prepared and take the Kleenex.

This has been such a nice week off so far and I am looking forward to a few more days off. I don't have to be back at work until Monday afternoon so I have more days to spend with my family. I realized on the way home that this is the first week off I've had where I haven't been jetting off to AZ since the Monday after Easter. While I love those trips, some time off has been welcomed. Okay, back to regularly scheduled web programming.

Parties Galore and Other Randomness

Last night, I finished my 5th party of the season. Most years I'm lucky to have ONE party much less five. But, all of them were fun in their own way and it was so much fun to take time out to visit with friends. They ranged from an office party unlike no other to a party with the seventh grade girls I teach. The office party was a lot of fun and we ended up donating $5,000 dollars to a variety of ministry areas around the world. Sometimes I think I work at the coolest place on the planet.

Random thoughts...why do people insist on adding lights, decorations and all kinds of other ridiculous stuff to their yards every year? What happened to tasteful decorations? Lights on the house, trees and bushes is one thing but lights on every freakin' surface is something else entirely. AL Power people must salivate at the thought. :-)

Have you seen the cars dressed up like reindeer? Seriously?! People buy this crap and then put it on their cars? No one will think your car is a reindeer. You just look stupid. Well, at least they have a sign so you know who to avoid. :-)

I'm off work in a little less than 7 hours for a whole week. Woo-Hoo!! I am seriously looking forward to some time off to visit with family, read, watch football and be generally lazy. But first, I get to go to see the Trans Siberian Orchestra tomorrow with my lovely sister who bought us tickets. Yea Sarah! I absolutely cannot wait. I'll post on the extravaganza next time I post.

Tiring Week

This has been an amazingly hectic week and it has nothing to do with the holidays. My mom had a scary episode on Monday that necessitated a hospitalization. Well needless to say, that necessitated a trip to GA on Monday night for me. There was noway on God's green earth that I was staying here while she was hospitalized. Now, that is not an indictment on my dad or sister's ability to deal with medical people but I do have the ability to speak the lingo since I am in the field.

Well, it ended up that it was probably a good thing I went over because her care ended up being monitored by a FIRST-YEAR resident who had a God-complex. Needless to say, I was less than thrilled with this development and managed to completely piss the doctor off with my questions. That wasn't my intention but she couldn't handle being questioned by someone she didn't view as her "equal." Mom's doctor wasn't as concerned about her symptoms as I thought she should be and wants to write everything off as "stress." My mother is not someone who stresses over life, never has been and because of her deep relationship with Christ, never will be. Thousands of women have died over the years because their doctors wrote off their symptoms as "stress" and that is simply unacceptable. There were additional tests that should have been run and weren't. Again, simply unacceptable. Needless to say, mom is looking for a new primary care physician.

Fortunately, God answered all our prayers and mom was released on Tuesday afternoon with no lasting problems (except for annoyance). Hopefully we are on the road to finding out what the problems are and getting them resolved. I have decided that I am too old to miss a night's sleep. I was awake all night Monday night because my chair in mom's room was designed as a torture device. :-) I am feeling the after-effects today. I am tired and can't really focus on any one thing for too long. Hopefully after getting some good rest over the next few nights, I'll be back to my normal self. Or at least what passes for normal. :-)

Lazy Saturday

I like days like today. I slept in, tidied my apartment, read some articles for school (still doing some of that) and have watched football. Add to the fact that AL lost and I'm good. Sometimes not going anywhere is a wonderful thing. I also got my stuff ordered from Samaritan's Purse. They are a really neat organization. I managed to order gifts in honor of my family members and could order things that fit their personalities (well except for Sarah, she wanted chickens). I just think it's a double blessing that my contributions fit my family's personality.

On the SEC Championship, I really would like to have found a way for both teams to lose but it is good to see nice guys like Tebow finish first. He is a guy who is unafraid to share his faith, spent some of his summer on the mission field and just comes across as very impressive. It was nice to see him lead his team to a victory. Hopefully the BCS computers won't figure out a way to keep FL out. The National Championship game should be the FL vs. OK unless OK loses and then it should be FL vs. TX. Anything else and I ain't watching.

Christmas Shopping

I spent my off day sleeping in and then going Christmas shopping. I am happy to report that I am almost finished. Just one more gift and a stocking stuffer and I am officially finished. Yipee! Of course, I still have chickens to buy but that's only a few clicks of the mouse. :-)

I do have a few observations from being out today. One, people are strange. I saw your typical weirdness at the Galleria and nothing in particular stands out but overall, there are some strange people in this world. Two, if you can't park your particular automobile in ONE parking place, please don't get out in public at busy shopping times. I saw more people today who seemed to think their car was so special they needed two or more parking spaces. Three, people seemed to be on their best behavior while I was out today. I didn't see anyone shouting at salespeople, cutting in lines and a few people who stepped in front of me actually apologized. I hope for the sake of those who are still shopping and those who are working retail that this trend continues.

It was a productive day and the best part is that I was home before 3:00!! Gotta love efficiency. :-)

50,000 in 50 Days

Okay people, here's the challenge. Find $5.00 extra in your Christmas spending and go to this website: http://www.50000shoes.com/ and donate to buy two pairs of shoes. The goal is to raise 50,000 pairs of shoes in 50 days. It is sponsored by an agency called Soles 4 Souls that is a charity born out of the Katrina disaster and now serves the poor worldwide with shoe donations. This seems like a really cool way to impact the world for less than the price of a meal out.

Random Coolness

We had staff meeting on Tuesday and David got to share about his time in India. He actually had the opportunity to go into a small village and share the Gospel for the first time. Seriously, the VERY FIRST time the Gospel has ever been shared with these people. Think about that. Let it soak over you. We here in the US, especially in the South, are so spoiled when it comes to the Gospel. We can't grow up without being exposed to some form of the Gospel (sometimes whether we wanted to hear it or not). Can you imagine never having heard? And now they have because our pastor believes in the awesome power of the Gospel and is willing to go to the hard places. I have to think the angels had a major party that day.

Another little tidbit of coolness...find the song "Give Me Your Eyes" by Brandon Heath. It is worth the listen. Heard it on klove.com today and can't wait to get home and get it downloaded.

Another stolen item

This was stolen off another blog but I think it so fits the season...

A Stressed Out Christian's Prayer

Heavenly Father,

Help me remember that the jerk who cut me off in traffic last night is a single mother who worked nine hours that day and is rushing home to cook dinner, help with homework, do the laundry, and spend a few precious moments with her children.

Help me to remember that the pierced, tattooed, disinterested young man who can't make change correctly is a worried 19-year-old college student, balancing his apprehension over final exams with his fear of not getting his student loans for the next school year.

Remind me, Lord, that the scary looking bum, begging for money in the same spot every day (who really ought to get a job) is a slave to addictions that we can only imagine in our worst nightmares.

Help me to remember, Father, that the old couple walking annoyingly slow through the store aisles and blocking our shopping progress are savoring this moment, knowing that, based on the biopsy report she got back last week, this will be the last year that they can go shopping together.

Heavenly Father, remind me each day that, of all the gifts You give us, the greatest gift is love. It is not enough to share that love with those we hold dear. Open my heart, dear Lord, not to just those who are close to me, but to all humanity. Let me be slow to judge, and quick to forgive, show patience, and empathy, and love.

Amen.