Ramblings and Other Such Things

It's been a awhile since I posted a blog. I not surprised. For me writing is something I have learned to do, I learned that all that it is, is telling the story you would normally tell with your mouth, but you use your fingers. My issues is somewhere between the mouth and the fingers at times the story gets lost. Anyway, just a couple quick thoughts. First off there is a thought about polarization. Not sure exactly what the thought is, but it has something to do with the fact that polarization is the extreme. Extremes are usually always intense. Everything seems polarized today, politics, views of how people should live there life, etc... Intensity is another thought, there is way too much intensity in my life. I need a lot less intensity in my life. I know it is for a season, so that is OK. I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. It is way off, and I am just hoping it is a light at the end of the tunnel rather then the light of the locomotive. I know there is a pile o...

Sometimes at night I am afraid I cover my eyes, Cover my shame So here in the dark Broken apart Come with your light And fill up my heart Oh great light of the world Fill up my soul I’m half a man here So come make me whole Oh great light of the world Come to impart The light of your grace To fill up my heart The wind of this world Can push us around Folding us up Backing us down But here in the dark I’m not alone So come with your strength And carry me home Oh great light of the world Fill up my soul I’m half a man here So come make me whole Oh great light of the world Come to impart The light of your grace Oh great light of the world Fill up my soul I’m half a man here So come make me whole Oh great light of the world Come to impart The light of your grace To fill up my heart The light of your grace To fill up my heart GREAT LIGHT OF THE WORLD Bebo Norman

It's been a while since I posted anything, but I have been wandering around trying to fine myself. I usually see myself on a regular basis but the challenge is I am either heading out the door or have some other pressing issue that I am attending to at the time. So hopefully I'll get an opportunity to sit down with myself and catch-up on life and see how I am doing. Once that's done I'm sure something will dribble out on this semi-blank white page. Till then...

I'm reposting this from an email from Ransom Heart: January 17, 2010 A Loss of Heart It was to the most religious people of his time that Jesus spoke his strongest warnings about a loss of heart. It is tragic for any person to lose touch with the life of their heart but especially so for those of us who once heard the call in our heart and recognized it as the voice of Jesus of Nazareth. We may remember him inviting us to a life of beauty, intimacy, and adventure that we thought was lost. For others of us, when he called, it felt for the first time in our lives as if our heart had finally found a home. We responded in faith, in hope, and in love and began the journey we call the Christian life. Each day seemed a new adventure as we rediscovered the world with God by our side. But for many of us, the waves of first love ebbed away in the whirlwind of Christian service and activity, and we began to lose the Romance. Our faith began to feel more like a series of problems that needed t...

Today was January 3rd, the weather today was cold...very cold, in fact, and windy. The windchill put us into the single digits most of the day. Light snow was flying with little or no accumulation from the big storm that was pounding the northern states of New England. I remember the weather one year ago, it was a very sunny day. It had snowed the week prior and most of the snow had melted and refroze a couple times but all in all one year ago the weather was beautiful. The temperature was in the low 30s. The reason I recall the weather so vividly last year, was that afternoon Dawn and I took a little hike. We hiked nice and leisurely up Sleeping Giant State Park to the castle. On the way down, I slipped and fell, shattering my left wrist plate. A couple hours later, I was home from the hospital emergency room, pain pills in hand with a cast up to my bicep. I can't say that I would want to relive the experience, but I think I will never forget the lessons learned from that bro...

Rejoice! I was thinking about this word the other day and was wondering what it means to rejoice. It's funny but I was looking back on my life wondering if there was a time of true rejoicing. I know I've rejoiced before. There's events in my life when there was great rejoicing, but what about true rejoicing? Is it even possible here on this fallen planet? As I was thinking further I asked myself, "What does it means to rejoice?" Dictionary.com (yes poor old Webster has gone the way of the internet. I wonder how many actual dictionaries (the paper kind) are not getting sold?) states that the word rejoice is a verb , anwhich means to be glad; take delight (often followed by "in": to rejoice in another’s happiness); to make joyful; gladden: a song to rejoice the heart. Synonyms are revel, exult, glory. I was driving down the road a couple weeks ago listening to Christmas carols (or modern ones) in the car on my iPod. One of the songs talked about the sheph...

I think growing up here in the United States is a privilege for most people. Of course there are draw backs for some: there is poverty, there are struggles, but in general for most people life is pretty good. One doesn't have to fight off some strange disease that you get from drinking from the same mud puddle that your neighbor washed his clothes in, or where the neighborhood kids run through, or where the local wildlife, well you know... You have clean water, food and shelter. Yesterday was Sunday and the family was over for what has become our traditional Sunday night dinner together. It's one of the best things Dawn and I started to do as our kids have gotten older. It was after dinner, all of us were hanging out in the living room, I think a football game was on the TV but no one was really watching. We were just hanging out. Tea had been brewed, the preview of the Christmas cookies had made their way out from hiding. Then out of nowhere we heard a knock at the front door...