I Don't Mean To Go Off On A Rant Here...

Christians who would refuse to endorse Mitt Romney solely on the fact he's a Mormon really are starting to chap my behind.

I am not ready to throw my support toward Mitt Romney or any other candidate as of yet, but if I choose not to support Mitt Romney, it won't be because he's not a Christian. Just because someone is a Christian does not automatically qualify them as the best choice for President, as James Dobson would have us believe. And his idea of not voting because he doesn't like either candidate is just wrong - if you don't cast your vote, you have no reason to complain about the president, ok Jimmy?

Another thing irritating my backside are Christians who want to pretend that the environment doesn't matter. Now mind you, this isn't an arguement for global warming. I'm far too ignorant of the facts, but only loaded with opinions from either side.

It seems to me that most Christians would just as soon rape the earth of it's resources because we can than try and save them. C'mon folks, we've been given the job of being stewards. This plant is not our whore to take what we want. No one can argue that our water is getting dirtier and our air is getting more polluted. But we continue to take, take, take. A friend of mine told me the other day that the answer to our dependance on foreign oil was to drill in Alaska...what?! The answer to our dependance on foreign oil to to not be dependant on oil at all!

With all the technology we have, it would not take a whole lot to produce more cars that run on corn oil, or you just plug in for the night...or even the one from 'Back To The Future' that ran on garbage. If we can find someone lost in the wilderness with a GPS, we can surely produce a car that doesn't run on gas.

How about it, science?

Watch Out For The Drool

My Favorite Christmas Song

Heath Ledger is going to rule this movie, I guaran - darn - tee it.

Watch the video, then read the post

Meredith,

There's not a day that goes by I don't think of you. You would have loved your mommy and your brother and sister. I'm so homesick and want to see you.

Love always,

Daddy

My night as a hobo

So the other night I realized I threw some pretty important papers in my garbage can and took the bag to the dumpster. These papers were so important, in fact, that my lovely wife asked me to go out the dumpster (in the 20 degree weather) and see if I could retrieve the bag from the dumpster.

So I head out to the dumpster with my broom in one hand (to haul out the trash bag) and my son’s tiger flashlight (his roars when you turn it on, which is way cooler than mine). I poked around in the trash for a little bit and I saw what I thought was my bag. I got it out and I could see through it that it was NOT the one I was looking for. So I poked around some more, and there at the bottom, under a huge roll of thrown out carpet, was the bag I was looking for. And this was a pretty big roll of carpet, so I knew that I was going to have to make a trip INSIDE the dumpster to get the bag.

Now mind you I am a little more roly-poly than I used to be. I jumped up and threw my leg over the opening of the dumpster only to lose my balance and fall off it. Nothing hurt but my ever-growing pride (and backside). One more giant heave-ho and I found myself inside the dumpster. It wasn’t as bad as I’d anticipated until I realized that one of my neighbors had decided to empty the kitty box in the dumpster. As I stood there among the garbage bags and piles of cat crap, I started to move the carpet so I could get into my garbage bag and get out. I saw the bag and knew that it was the one I was looking for…Jackpot!

I got the bag and opened it up to find this was not…my…garbage…bag.

The smell from the bag made me sick. I almost puked right then and there.

Some nice female member of our apartment complex had also used this trash bin to deposit her used….um yeah.

My wife laughed her tail off when I told her.

July 18 cannot come fast enough!

O What A Night

Have you ever heard someone sing something that sounded really, really good, but it just seemed like they couldn’t ‘feel’ what they were singing?

For example, a couple years ago there was a young female pop artist that recorded a version of the hymn ‘His Eye Is On The Sparrow’. Beautiful voice. I just didn’t feel the emotion from her that she believed what she was singing…it sounded pretty, but something was missing.

With it being the Christmas season, it seems we’re inundated with numerous singers trying their hand at the spiritual Christmas songs, but to me, they’re missing something. Not a judgment call, just an observation.

Every Christmas, the local country station gets many, many requests for this song I posted below. It’s the most beautiful rendition of ‘O Holy Night’ I have ever heard. Cool thing is, the guy gets it. He understands what he’s singing about. The emotion is so…raw to me.

Enjoy.

My Trip To Hillbilly Mecca

Back in the 60's, John Lennon got himself into a little trouble for saying that the Beatles were bigger than Jesus Christ.

John Lennon had never been to Flatwoods, Kentucky.

My wife's hometown - Flatwoods, Kentucky - is also the hometown of Billy Ray Cyrus. Yes sir, my wife fondly remembers 1993 when 'Achy Breaky Heart' and BRC was the hottest thing around (until Billy Ray's daughter put on wig).

Several trips ago, April took me to L and J's, another famous landmark in Flatwoods, because that's where Billy Ray liked to hangout before he 'made it'. I kid you not, this place has (or had - it's closed now. Guess BRC didn't care for it too much after all) a Billy Ray booth marked off. And I got to sit in it. How cool am I?

One other cool tid-bit: My mother-in-law used to work in the lawyer's office and helped handle some of Billy Ray's paternity suits.

My Billy Ray obsession is 15 years too late. Guess I'll have to settle for watching 'Hannah Montana'.

Empty

'I had only heard about you before,
but now I have seen you with my own eyes.
I take back everything I said,
and I sit in dust and ashes in repentance'

- Job 42:5-6

The whole time I read that passage, I just felt God whispering to me, 'Jim, Job was speaking about me without knowing what he was talking about. You've been doing the same thing.'

That kind of took me back - it's not as if I have been teaching heresies to my students. What God pointed out to me was much worse - I was teaching them about a God I really have not spent much time with in the past few weeks. Things have felt so...robotic. Like I have been running on autopilot. Wednesday night, Sunday School, the small groups...running on pure Jim and really no God, although God is working in spite of me. I want to get back to where I was with God...so, so close. Striving to find him. Hearing from Him often. Knowing which steps to take. I miss that so much. I feel so empty.


'He is the one who can tell us the reason for our existence, our place in the scheme of things, our real identity. It is an identity we can't discover for ourselves, that others can't discover in us - the mystery of who we really are....it is a secret He will tell us slowly and sweetly, when we are willing to spend time with Him; time with Him who is beyond all time.'

- Emilie Griffin