My car the car magnet

This weekend I paid the final payment on my car which means that for the first time in about 11 years, I'm finally driving a paid off vehicle. This morning on the way to work, I was rear-ended by an enormous truck. Thankfully, no one was hurt, and amazingly, my car didn't sustain any damage.

I am a little concerned though. The last paid off vehicle I owned was the trusty Ford Tempo which endured a spree of accidents, none my fault. This poor car was backed into at school, hit head on at an intersection, rear-ended on the way home from school, and finally backed into by Mom. I'm really hoping that I haven't ushered in some new curse of the paid off vehicle :)

My friend is no longer listed as married on facebook

I've seen this a couple of times on facebook in the last week. "friend's name here" is no longer listed as married. What's troubling is I'm not sure how to interpret that statement when I'm not very up on their marital situation to begin with. Is their marriage really over, or did something just happen on facebook? Seems a little awkward to ask.

John Piper on the Prosperity Gospel

Headlines can be deceiving

Headline on CNN: Gasoline Prices Slip Again
My Reaction: That's good news
Actual Article Content: "The average price of unleaded gasoline fell to $4.096 a gallon from $4.104 the previous day. The nationwide average is down nearly a penny from the all-time high of 4.108 a gallon."
Revised Reacation: This is not news.

Nearly a Penny? Thank goodness for this relief at the pump. How is this relevant? Seriously, are gas prices really slipping when they fall by 8/10 of a cent? I know math & business sticklers will say yes, but this is not news.

The Reflexive Nature of Senses

Even though our senses are primarily extroverted, it's interesting that they can reflect back their own nature. Our eyes can see themselves; our hands can feel themselves; our tongues can taste themselves; our noses can even smell themselves; our minds can think about themselves.

Something Better

It's an interesting phenomenon in Christian and non-Christian circles alike, that when something sad or disappointing happens, a friend will reassure the discouraged that there's something better waiting for him/her. I think there is a little bit of Biblical justification for this, in regard to God working all things together for good, but I'm not sure that there is any type of one-to-one ratio on this. In other words, if you apply for a job and don't get it, it might not be that it was a bad fit or even that God has a better job in store. It might be that it just didn't work out, as opportunities sometimes don't. There is likely something to be learned in the process of disappointment that contributes to sanctification, but I'm not sure if there is a promise beyond that. I only point this out to be realistic, not pessimistic. Treating disappointment as a rain check for a future blessing, while temporarily reassuring, can lead to a sense of entitlement that may or may not yield a result. If we intend to encourage, and not merely console others we should be careful in how we exhort others to handle disappointment.

Travel (reprise)

I have to echo my August 11, 2007 post about travel, ie: that I like being other places much more than the travel itself, especially when it involves airlines. I'll add at this point that a head cold with sinus congestion makes this even more true. My ears still haven't gotten over our cruising altitude of 37,000 feet.

Painting

After painting most of my house, I can't get away from the reality that everything surrounding the painting is really most of the work. Taping, covering, cleaning, redundant trips to Home Depot, etc have been much more tedious and time consuming than rolling and brushing paint onto the walls. Insert life application here.

The Question

It had been a while since the question had come up. “Your brothers are both so musically talented. Why don’t you play anything?” I used to get the question a lot at the church where I grew up. My dad was one of the pastors at the biggest church in town, so my brothers and I were sort of like local celebrities, but in none of the good ways. Imagine the weather guy from the local news channel that you see in the grocery store; he’s not anyone you’d brag about meeting, but you might look over your shoulder to see what kind of cereal he buys. And if you saw that he was buying Lucky Charms, you might have the thought that a guy like that should have better sense than to buy sugary cereals. All that to say that it seemed that everyone had an opinion about us, and it’s something I’ve had to spend some time getting over. The question itself is benign, it’s a curiosity to most people, but I don’t like what it implies, ie: that because my brothers were musically gifted beyond belief that my lack of the gift is some sort of intentional staying of the hand of God. I don’t know the answer; in fact I’m not sure there needs to be an answer. I got some other pretty good gifts, and I get to enjoy their music without the burden of performance. All of this is a bit difficult to explain, and probably a bit much to drop on someone for an honest question, but if you’ve read this post, you now know me a little better.

Patience

Much of life comes too late for me. When it does finally come it doesn’t always feel that way, but on the front-end there isn’t much patience. It’s hard to say that. I feel like I’ve done a lot of waiting so that should equal patience, but patience and waiting are probably two different things. Several aspects of my life have involved much waiting, but admittedly, little of it has been patient. I’m not sure whether waiting is a virtue or not; it would seem unfair to only be credited for the times when I really had peace about the waiting.