Leap Day

As I sit here today on Feb. 29, I have celebrated 45 birthdays, and have experienced 12 different leap years. This website was formed in 2008, which makes this the second leap year that I have been a blogger. Given that I did not start posting until October 2008, this represents my first opportunity to actually post on a leap day. So, in 3 sentences, I have whittled away at 45 until I am left with 1. One chance. A once in a lifetime opportunity.

While posting a blog on Feb. 29 is not an entry on my bucket list, I think that it is something that I should celebrate. Maybe I should write it as a listed item on a piece of paper and then mark it off with a bit of fanfare. Yet in every other respect, it is just another day, so why should it be so special, set apart from any other day? But that is my point here. Every day that we face the sunrise can be viewed as something special, something unique. Something to be celebrated and embraced. Who says that we shouldn't use the good china or clink our glasses in celebration on any day that we choose?

Serpent

It starts out as a peaceful night at home alone - a good meal, followed by some light household chores and a bit of reading. Along the way my mind begins to relax, letting go of the burdens and challenges that had occupied it and kept it on focus during the day. In this posture, it can happen that the seed of a lustful thought germinates or an impure image flashes across my mind, demanding my attention with its potent lure. The moment of the serpent is at hand.

On such a night as this, the serpent sometimes carries me away before I even have an instant to recognize what I have allowed to happen. In the moment the sensations are empowering, controlling, overwhelming, and I am all too easily lost in the carnal riptides that pull me under. Only when I regain some modicum of my senses, do I recognize how far the serpent has taken me from the path that I know I am supposed to be on. It is a sickening feeling of failure, of weakness, of betrayal, of sin. How many times have I vowed the oath of never again?

On such a night as this, sometimes I call to bear sufficient strength to vanquish the siren's song of the beast. When he recognizes that he shall find no quarter within me, he slinks off elsewhere for other prey, for his next victim. This feeling of victory and strength far outweighs any momentary pleasure that the serpent can deliver.

Christian Atheist

I have read several books by pastor and author Craig Groeschel and have found them both approachable and insightful. Each has been quite different from the others, but quite valuable. I had come across his book The Christian Atheist several times when browsing at my local bookstore and made a note to add it to my reading list. Recently I picked up a copy and was well pleased with this work.

The subtitle of this rather provocative sounding title is "Believing in God but living as if he doesn't exist." The purpose of the oxymoron, "Christian Atheist", obviously is to pull prospective readers in, but I never found his approach to be a gimmick. What else would you call a person who claims that they believe in God but whose life bears no imprint of this relationship? "They claim to know God, but by their actions they deny him." (Titus 1:16)

Each chapter in this work focuses on a different aspect that many people who claim to believe in God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit struggle with. This includes issues with your prayer life, lack of forgiveness, worry, money, the church, love, and relationships. The thread that runs through this book that I found so helpful is the honesty with which Groeschel approaches his own shortcomings. Change is oftentimes extremely hard and time consuming, but each day we can continue to work on ourselves and our relationship with God. My favorite line of problem ownership from Groeschel in this book was:

"God created me in his image. I returned the favor and created him in mine."

Advances in Technology

Every news outlet and advertising medium touts the benefits of our society's advances in technology. Every other day the newest, latest, must-have gadget goes on sale and we all rush like lemmings to the store to throw out our hard-earned money. But did you ever stop to think about the negative aspects of what we have lost or left behind due to these advances? Have you even taken a moment to count the costs? Well, for the purposes of this blog, I have done a little bit of thinking along these lines. You don't have to thank me, I consider this a public service. Let me illustrate three obvious examples.

1). Telephones - In the old days we talked into a receiver that was wired to a base unit with a cord that looked like a piggy's tail. If we wanted to storm out on a bad conversation with a point of emphasis, we could slam the receiver into its cradle with gusto. I can assure you that it was quite unpleasant for the person on the other end of the line. Now with my cell phone, I can only press the "end" button with a frowny face. This does nothing to make clear my disgust.

2). Eyeglasses - In the old days we could use our glasses in several key ways. We could grab them at one temple and quickly rip them off our faces to demonstrate incredulity. (Think of Oscar Goldman in the old Six Million Dollar Man show from the 1970s). We could also calmly nibble on the end of one earpiece to advertise that we were in deep thought. None of this works at any level with these new-fangled contact lenses.

3). Car Ignitions - Once upon a time, when our cars wouldn't start, we could turn the key in the ignition with a grimace on our face and mutter, "Come on mama!" Now we have these space-age vehicles that start with the push of a button. Plus, we don't even have a key on which we can hang a dangly chain.

Oh technology, you are a cruel mistress.

Old-Timer

As baseball's spring training is just a few weeks away, I have been reading the sports headlines with renewed interest as major league teams are signing players and shoring up their rosters. Given that only one team can win the World Series championship each year, most fans are left to lick their wounds over the long off-season. However, as March comes creeping up, most folks have managed to wipe the slate of their team's losing fully clean. They now have a renewed vigor and sense of hope regardless of which team they pull for. A friend of mine who roots for a perennial also-ran told me that, in fact, the beginning of the baseball season is the most interesting for him given that this is the only time of the season when his team will be within a few games of first place! How is that for perspective?

Yet with all of this palpable excitement about the start of the new season, it occurred to me recently that my window has passed for playing professional baseball. It's not just that I have no talent whatsoever and have not played in a game of baseball since I was a l'il nipper, it's that I am just too dang old. That thought has kind of weighed on me for a bit. I know it makes no sense, but that is beside the point. In my mind it just doesn't seem that long ago when I was running off to Little League practice or dreaming the dreams of youth listening to the Boston Red Sox on my old AM radio. But even if I could somehow get offered a Major League contract, I would have to turn it down, because at my age I would look ridiculous in a baggy polyester uniform.

Thunder of Heaven

The last part of Ted Dekker's Martyr's Song trilogy is entitled, The Thunder of Heaven. While there are a few character ties from this story to those in Heaven's Wager and When Heaven Weeps, "Thunder" really is a stand-alone story about love and redemption, about God's plan and His timing, and about our individual roles in the Kingdom. It also provides some important insight into being obedient to God, even when things don't make sense to us or when there is a cost to us that might even amount to our earthly lives.

The story begins in Venezuela in an area carved out of the Amazonian jungle that includes a small coffee plantation and a mission house to serve the local indians. The teenage children of the two families, Shannon and Tanya, are deeply in love, and it seems as if they were destined to be together. Out of nowhere, their compounds are suddenly overrun by a terrorist group who slaughter their parents. Shannon and Tanya each live through their own hell during the attack that sets their paths moving forward. Tanya prays out to God, making a vow to do anything if He will save her. Shannon, who must fight his way through the militants, embraces the ways of killing and death for survival and revenge. Ultimately they escape, thinking they alone are the sole survivors of the carnage.

Seven years later, the separate worlds of Shannon and Tanya are brought back together. Each fights their own battle of survival and uncertainty, in a struggle with the same terrorists who overran their homes and slaughtered their parents. Nuclear weapons, a well-financed drug ring, dirty players and secrets within the CIA. In a world spinning on the edge, with millions of lives in the balance, we watch God's plan unfold on both a global scale and on an intimate, personal level. A wonderful story and a trilogy that was top notch from start to finish.

Speed Bumps

The other day I made a trip to a local mall and was aghast at the sheer scale of the speed bumps that they had installed every 3 feet around their parking lot. If you had put K-2 next to these behemoths, it would have been covered in shadow. I mean, as I passed over these structures, the oxygen masks in my car popped down! (Note that I put mine on first and then assisted my child with hers). At the end of that hair-raising experience, I thought that the topic of speed bumps was crying out for me to investigate further.

Later, as I was looking for information on the Algorian superhighway of stuff on what constituted a regulation speed bump, I came across a site that proclaimed across its top "The ULTIMATE Blog on Speed Bumps, Speed Humps and Parking Curbs". My first thought was, this person really has embraced a real specialized niche area. The second thing that I noticed was that they had more followers than I do. But that is beside the point. The key piece of information that I was after was the allowed dimensions of a state-legal speed bump installed in a public roadway or parking area. The answer that I found was that this is all controlled by local mafias, so if Mr. Big says they shall be big enough to cover a dead body, then that is how big they shall be. But, one state (CA) does have posted speed bump regulations on the books. They are:

Speed bumps must be 3.5-in high by 12-in wide and must have a 6-in incline on either side.

The speed bumps that I encountered in that local mall parking lot would clearly not have been allowed in CA, unless suitable kickbacks were established. But hey, who am I to argue with Mr. Big?