I’ve always heard that the older you get, the faster time seems to fly by you.  If that’s true, then I might as well go ahead and send in that early registration card for the AARP.  Geez, the month of January went somewhere in a hurry, and I barely noticed.  Anyway, I was just realizing that Lent begins NEXT WEEK!  Easter is early this year, but man, Lent?  Already? My personal spiritual rhythm for the season actually takes a little bit of advance preparation this year, so I need to get cracking.  For the first time, I’ll be adding a discipline to my life, rather than fasting from something for the season.  It will require work which will seem mundane, rather than spiritual, and some tedious effort, but I’m looking forward to doing what I have in mind.  I’m not going public with what I do . . . maybe [...]

I was looking in the mirror this morning, realizing that I need to tame my mad scientist hair.  This led me to ask what kind of haircut I should get, which led me to remember some of the interesting fashion choices I’ve made over the years. My wedding photos don’t show me wearing some really ugly or bizarre-colored tuxedo . . . but they do show my vintage Tom Sellick mustache. Thankfully, very little photographic evidence exists that would confirm the fact that I used to rock a mullet . . . with blond streak highlights. I’ve never followed through on this, but I used to have strange urges to apply eyeliner. I used to wear an eyebrow ring . . . and sometimes wish I still had it. I may never stop wearing Doc Martens. I have a couple pairs of jeans that are too long, and when people [...]

I woke up early this morning with what felt like a weird combination of depression and hope.  Depression, because I’ve seen some real weak spots in the way I’m approaching some aspects of my work and life.  I’m seeing areas where I know I can have a more profound impact on others, and bring encouragement to them.  I’m seeing an inbox and task list that prove how far behind I am on getting some things done.  And yet, there’s definitely the hope side of things: some of the reason I’m behind is that I’ve spent good time with good people sharing plans and ideas for good work together.  I have hope that even in the areas of my greatest character weaknesses, I have the capacity to live into the Kingdom reality in a way that changes everything.  I have hope that even without trying harder, producing more, and getting things [...]

First things first. I’m not an economist. One of my two C’s in college came in an Econ class. So I’m horribly unqualified to comment on this stuff . . . However, I’m a home owner, and have been so for almost 11 years now. I’ve seen my share of interest rate cuts and hikes over the years – and Michelle and I have refinanced our mortgages a couple times in response. But usually, the rates don’t go up or down drastically, without the financial geniuses of the world anticipating some action. Yeah, well, today the Fed cut rates by three-quarters of a point. Huge. Sounds like we got us a pretty good recession brewing. And so what does our all-wise government have in mind? An “economic stimulus” package. They’re talking about handing out $800 tax rebates, so we can all run to malls for iPods and designer shoes, or [...]

As I sit and type this, from our home office, all I have to do is look up from my laptop screen, and I see this: Not bad . . .

In an era where we’ve been constantly reminded that foreign nations are either with us, or they’re with the enemy, it’s important to step back and take stock of who exactly “we” are, and who “they” might be. A couple of days ago, I got to see one of our students for the first time since the holiday break. She’s from Turkey. Over the past few weeks, there have been multiple acts of violence in Turkey, which I’ve seen in the news, and have been interested in talking to her about it. So, after hearing about her travels over the holidays, and her preparations to return to Turkey soon, I asked her what’s been going on. She talked about a group called the PKK, and how they’ve been a militant disruptive group for a long time now. Thousands of people have been killed in the conflict this group has stirred [...]

Merry Christmas to everyone! My sincere congratulations to everyone for the Glorious and Auspicious Birthday of Divine Prophet – confirmed and authenticated by Gabriel, the angel of Divine revelation – the Obedient of Almighty God, Jesus Christ, the Messiah (peace be upon Him) This is your warm Christmas greeting, straight from the blog of . . . Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. via

No time to read “other” stuff this week. Truth is, I don’t have time to be blogging now. But when I do have more time, I’m going to chase this story: For Earth’s Sake, Don’t Divorce . . . Study: Single Households Consume Lots More Per Capita Than Married Ones A quick scan of “Christian” headlines I track reveals not a blip on the radar . . . perhaps we’re too busy fighting homosexual marriage and denying global warming to actually care about heterosexual divorce and the environment. Perhaps I’ll get to this story next week.

I just noticed that in the Facebook e-mail environment, the spell-checker flags “Facebook” as a misspelled word. And since I’m talking about it, is it just me, or is Facebook super slow today??

Justin Baeder is being threatened with a lawsuit by the makers of the abominable Left Behind video games. I’d laugh if I weren’t so stunned by the silliness. Read Justin’s version of things here.