New Life'n

Eight things I learned about myself while walking my mangy mutt

1.  It's a lot safer to bark at someone from a distance (or behind their back) than it is to their face

2.  I have days when I'm right in step with Jesus and I have days when I'm constantly yanking on the leash

3.  When I prove I won't fight the limits of the leash, I get a longer, slacker leash

4.  When I'm fed, rested and have my business taken care of, I get a spring in my step

5.  But I look for excuses to be distracted from my business -- a noise, a smell, some action nearby -- oooh, what's that?

6.  Most of the time I really would -- while singing in Goofy's clueless doh-de-oh-doh voice -- wander right off the curb in front of a car

7.  If I'm thnking of eating (or doing) something I'm not suppossed to, I make sure I snarf it down quick, before I have time to think about it and before someone notices and calls me on it

8.  Being an obedient, good dog in one area doesn't keep me out of trouble when I disobey in another

The President's homework before his daughter's wedding

He did what a lot of dads do before their daughters get married -- watched Father of the Bride!  Did he pick up any tips from the movie?

Yes, which is to write the check and be happy.

He was interviewed this week, and talked about not using email (security reasons), his happiest moment in the White House (walking in the Oval Office for the first time as President with his dad), who he's rooting for on American Idol (no one -- he says he's asleep when it's on!) and when he needed faith the most as President:

I'd say daily. I mean, part of the faith walk is to understand your weaknesses and is to constantly try to embetter yourself and get closer to the Lord. And that's a daily occurrence. Obviously there's been some tough moments in here. When you know that somebody lost their loved one as a result of a decision that I made, that's a tough moment. If you're a faithful person you try to empathize with the suffering that that person is going through. On the other hand, there is a knowledge that the good Lord can comfort during these moments of grief. And that's what I ask for in my prayer.

He doesn't play golf anymore...

I don't want some mom whose son may have recently died to see the Commander-in-Chief playing golf. I feel I owe it to the families to be as -- to be in solidarity as best as I can with them. And I think playing golf during a war just sends the wrong signal.

He also talks about baseball and Iraq and how tired the current Presidential candidates have to be.  And he had this one really memorable phrase:

Popularity is fleeting...  Principles are forever.

You can read it all HERE.

Sara's only homerun

Her teammates couldn't touch her.  But the other team could...

Why don't you explode?

My friend Steve has some new baby chicks at his house.  I don't know anything about chicks, but Steve says over time 'pellets' can form on their little butts when they poop.  If not removed, he said the chicks can, umm...blow up.

Steve says his wife has spent some time on her knees with a bucket of water and a bunch of chicks, one-by-one dipping their little bottoms in the bucket to soften the pellet, and then gently dabbing each chick butt with a cloth to clean it up.  That way they don't explode.  It didn't sound like it was a one-time thing.

And the chicks don't have a clue what's been done for them.  They didn't ask for help or even know they needed it.  Not exploding seems normal to them.   

So, does Jesus love you and me less than Steve's wife loves those baby chicks?

If Mother's Day is hard for you

Maybe because of infertility or miscarriage or abortion, stillbirth or early infant death -- HERE'S HELP.

Aren't you glad you're not a perfect mom?

'The Perfect Mother'
by Erma Bombeck

Everyone said Sharon was a terrific mother.

Her neighbors said it.

Sharon painted the inside of her garbage cans with enamel, grew her own vegetables, cut her own grass every week, made winter coats for the entire family from remnants and donated blood.

Her mother said it.

Sharon drove her to the doctor’s when she had an appointment, color-coordinated the children’s clothes and put them in labeled drawers, laundered aluminum foil and used it again, planned family reunions, wrote her Congressman, cut everyone’s hair and knew her health insurance policy number by heart.

Her children’s teacher said it.

She helped her children every night with their homework, delivered her son’s paper route when it rained, packed nutritious lunches with little raised faces on the sandwiches, was homeroom mother, belonged to five car pools and once blew up 234 balloons by herself for the seventh grade cotillion.

Her husband said it.

Sharon washed the car when it rained, saved antifreeze from year to year, paid all the bills, arranged their social schedule, sprayed the garden for bugs, moved the hose during the summer, put the children on their backs at night to make sure they didn’t sleep on their faces, and once found a twelve-dollar error on a tax return filed by H & R Block.

Her best friend said it...

Her minister said it...

Sharon was one of those women blessed with a knack for being organized. She planned a “theme party” for the dog’s birthday, made her children elaborate Halloween costumes out of old grocery bags and her knots came out just right on the shoelaces when they broke. She put a basketball hoop over the clothes hanger as an incentive for good habits, started seedlings in a toilet paper spindle, and insulated their house with empty egg cartons, which everyone else threw away.

Sharon kept a schedule that would have brought any other women to her knees. Need twenty-five women to chaperone a party? Give the list to Sharon. Need a mother to convert the school library to the Dewey Decimal System? Call Sharon. Need someone to organize a block party, garage sale or a school festival? Get Sharon.

Sharon was a SUPER MOM!
Her gynecologist said it.
Her butcher said it. 
Her tennis partner said it.
Her children…

Her children never said it.

They spent a lot of time with Rick’s mother, who was always home with them and who ate cookies out of a box and played poker with them.

Who am I that you should be mindful of me?

If you want to do something about it

That cyclone in SE Asia has killed over 20,000 people.  40,000 missing.  Maybe a million homeless.  Rice crops are wiped out and drinking water is all polluted.

   

Samaritans Purse in Boone is gearing up to help -- you can help them do it HERE.

Before you smother it with cheese and bake it...

Play it

Are you afraid to paint your brick?

Or put holes in your walls?

Is your home a place to be or a place to "be careful". If you can't make a mistake at home then where can you try out something new?

...do you want your home to be perfect or do you want your home to be beautiful? Go forth, ladies, dig out that paint brush, use your high heel shoe as your hammer, take that risk and make your house your home! The secret is out: It doesn't have to be perfect to be beautiful!

Imperfectly Beautiful: The Philosophy of a Home

(And my grandparents were some of those people with the plastic slipcovers -- and Jesus never did show up)

There's a hero in Charlotte this weekend

He's at the Wachovia Championship and no, it's not Tiger or Phil.  It's DJ Gregory, who loves golf, but can't play.  But he can walk,  And walk, and walk, and walk...  And even that's a miracle.  Here's his story:

Ready, set, vote

Are you like a lot of people and way more interested than usual in this year's primary?  But maybe you haven't yet decided how you're voting, or you've only been paying attention to the presidential race -- if so, here's some help to get you ready for next Tuesday:

Charlotte Observer Regional Voter's Guide -- all the state and area stuff.  Voting times, candidate lists for your area, district maps...

North Carolina Family Policy Council Voter's Guide -- they're committed to preserving the family and traditional family values.  It's a little tough to line up the answers in the chart with the questions asked of each candidate, but when you do, it's helpful.

All the official answers to your voting questions -- Am I registered?  Where do I vote?  How do I use the equipment?  Can I get fries with that?

Project Vote Smart -- Bio's, voting records and interest group ratings for the candidates.

These links will stay at the top of the right sidebar thru the election.

Aaaaaaaaand -- even in elementary school, politics means wheeling & dealing, crying & hurt feelings, and apologies at the end...

Happy but hungry -- wanna help?

These are kids from the Hoover Village orphanage in Liberia that you heard Jennifer talking about on the radio this morning.  They're out of food!  500 kids eat 2 bags of rice a day, which costs $80 a day.  But Liberia has put a hold on adoptions so the orphanage has no money to buy food.  The kids need your help.

Donations are being collected by the Christian agency that runs the orphanage.  Their website is HERE.

Here's their address:

AFCI
PO Box 1238
303 North Main Street
Lancaster, SC 29721

10 ways to stay humble

Especially when people praise you. 

And here's an 11th:

There are suppossed to be over 100 billion galaxies in the observable universe.  Each one is made up of at least 10 million stars -- some may have a trillion. 

And we've been to the moon of one planet of one of those stars in one of those galaxies.  And it's the closest one. 

Wow.  Ain't we something?

OK, I did not believe this

I'm still not believing it.  Do they really do it like this?  YES.

I'd hate to see what my Frosted Chocolate Fudge Pop Tart in my pocket looked like when I finally got to work.

The most useful question ever

It's the most annoying question when kids ask it, but it might also be the most useful ever.  That is, if you want to understand.  Sometimes it seems kids are just repeating WHY? over and over, but maybe they really are listening and wanting to learn from our answers.

Reading the news this morning, I felt like a kid.  But I ended up understanding something.

You've maybe heard or noticed that bread and pasta and bagels and noodles are costing more.

Why?

Because wheat prices have doubled in the last few months.

Why?

Because farmers aren't planting as much wheat.  Only 2/3 as much as 20 years ago.

Why?

They now make lots more money growing corn and soybeans.

Why?

Soybeans are used for animal feed and cooking oil in foreign countries.  And corn is used for ethanol for our cars -- and obviously right now with high gas prices there's a big demand for alternatives to oil.

So by asking why, I was reminded that things are usually so connected that solving one problem can easily end up causing another.  Things really are more complicated, or deeper, than we see at first.

Maybe grownups should ask why more often.  And not settle for the first answer but keep asking why until you understand. 

Seriously, how often are you satisfied with the first answer to a question you ask...but you never persist in pursuing why? and so you end up feeling the answer you got was surface and inadequate.  You might even think there must not be a good answer.  But the person answering your question doesn't know you feel that way because you never asked why? 

• "Why do I need a warranty on this?"...(and why....and why...)
• "Why does it matter who's elected President?...(and why...and why...)
• "Why do we need new kitchen cabinets?"...
• "Why are you crying?"...
• "Why do I keep acting like this?"...
• "Why did Jesus have to die on the cross?"...

There may really be a fulfilling, deep, satisfying answer in there, but you have to chase it.  Like a kid.

Umm, I don't think I want to be a parent

Ooops, too late.

Isn't that how it is? -- after the kids are grown you finally figure out the big picture

The children will have years of exposure to what the universe is like before they know there is a universe. They will experience the kind of authority there is in the universe and the kind of justice there is in the universe and the kind of love there is in the universe before they meet the God of authority and justice and love who created and rules of the universe...

That was suppossed to come from me!  That's what parenting is -- or should be...

Children are absorbing from dad his strength and leadership and protection and justice and love; and they are absorbing from mother her care and nurture and warmth and intimacy and justice and love—and, of course, all these overlap.

Yikes!  Thank God for grace.

It sounds like a whole 'nother burden added to parenting.  But, I don't think it's an extra thing tacked on to all the other parenting duties -- it's done as you go and do everything else. 

John Piper is writing a book on marriage; here's more of the excerpt Children Understand the Universe Before They Know There Is One. 

Don't let the kids see this right before bed

Laughed my head off.  Brenda (my wife) just stared, numb with confusion and a bit of fear.

Be courteous, be kind, be the change

Courtesies of a small and trivial character are the ones which strike deepest in the grateful and appreciating heart. -- Henry Clay

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Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle. -- Philo of Alexadria

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You must be the change you wish to see in the world. -- Gandhi

I lived in John Adams' house

Well, it felt like I did last night when I watched the last hour of the HBO mini-series (after I got over how much John Adams looked like Tim Conway).  You could feel the floor creak under your feet.  You could smell their breath thru their rotting teeth.  The odor of chamber pots wasn't so great, either.  But what really made you feel like you lived in John Adams' house was the gritty, gentle character of John Adams and his family. 

This was the only hour I've seen.  Were the other eight hours this good?  Michael Medved says yes:

When a TV network offers new programming that’s entertaining, inspiring and substantive, it’s enough to renew our faith in miracles. HBO’s epic eight hours on John Adams is precisely that sort of pop culture miracle: a lovingly-rendered tribute to the most misunderstood, most under-rated of our founding fathers.

The DVD won't be available until June, but you can order it now HERE.  (thanks Justin)

Using the Bible to witness to people who don't believe the Bible

"But, Irene, I don't believe the Bible." -- over twenty years ago that's exactly what I said and it made me feel like a heathen, but what was I suppossed to do when she answered one of my objections with, "but it says right here in the Bible"...?

I remember thinking, if I believed the Bible, I'd be a Christian!  And obviously I wasn't which was why she was using the Bible to convince me. 

But, I don't agree with Stuff Christians Like that this is a "cuckoo" idea.  When I finally did believe, the things people had been telling me from the Bible came alive, crushing me and freeing me at the same time.  And haven't you heard stories of people who suddenly believed solely from hearing the words of Scripture?  At the same time, for me, people who lived like they were from a different planet definitely got my attention and served to help make things clear, so I'd agree when Stuff says

if your Bible is the only outward expression or explanation of your faith then the minute you meet someone that does not believe in it you've hit a serious wall. It's like trying to tell someone that lived their whole life in the desert how deep the ocean is and how many animals live in it. They don't even believe in the concept of salt water, never mind the miracle of oceanic life. You've got to live it. You have to be the ocean and express your life in such a way that even if all they've seen are sandstorms for the last twenty years, when they're around you, they can't help but start to hear the waves.

Beth Moore's pricey soup

I heard her in person the other day. 

She joked that her audience was usually all wearing capri pants, and yeah, being a guy probably limits my appreciation of her.  It did take a minute to get over that feminine, (to me) over-emotional way of praying and asking God to bless our time.  But soon I was caught up in Jacob wrestling with God and my own reaction to her urging us to not ever let go of wrestling with God in intimacy. 

The words came out like they had butterfly and eagle wings, fluttering and soaring, and none seemed to fall to the floor.  It felt like each person was given something personal.  I know I was -- my relationship with Jesus is the most important thing in the world...

You can get the stage, the gig, the platform and draw a crowd and make a knock-em-out impression.  You can do that with skill and effort, on your own.  And then you can give Jesus credit, even though you did it, and it sounds good, and some people won't know the difference.

But this kind of thing, where the speaker becomes invisible, and you're listening to her but you feel like it's only you and Jesus -- that comes at a greater price than skill and effort and perseverence.  There's some kind of soup of brokenness, humility, hopelessness, rejection, suffering and death that cooks for God-knows-how-long into this nourishing bowl of exaltation, healing, acceptance, and new life. 

Nourishing for others.  Very expensive for you.

And while it's cooking, you ask, how long?  And the only answer you get is, until I say it's done. 

There aren't many price-payers in the world.  There's way more benefit-getters -- I'm one -- and the contrast when you're in the same room with the other one can be convicting and inspiring at the same time.   

I wrote her husband a note, but didn't give it to him -- "I don't know what cost you've had to pay to be able to do this, but it's worth it."  I think I wrote it for myself, as maybe some kind of soup-starter of my own.

Bueller?...Bueller?...Anyone?

Ferris's teacher is back in the classroom!  And he's dead-dog serious about getting the word out "before it's too late."

Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed is showing now at the AMC Concord Mills theaters, Regal Starlight near Verizon Ampitheater, and Park Terrace 6 on Park Road.

Charlie bit me

And the remix:

It's just really cool to have everything you need

So at the end of Surf's Up, the competition is over and Cody has learned that it's not all about being numero uno, and he's found that fighting the board and the waves leads to wiping out. 

They have the big competition where they keep score, but then when it's over, they head to the other side of the island where the surfing is for it's own sake.  For the joy of the wave.

Apparently, surfing to keep score and surfing just to surf can't be done at the same place.

In the end, it's about friends and relaxing and being one with the wave.  OK, cool.

And as I watch I recognize there's this hunger in me to be in step with the Wave, and a hunger to not keep score and constantly judge myself.  To have me and the Wave be, like, together, effortlessly, all the time.  And to have it be about that and not about the results. 

To just relax inside and enjoy the Wave and his love and his leading. 

Not that that would mean I'm not active, but my activity would be so in step with the Wave that it was like I was along for the ride, looking like I'm standing still, but really I'm just in perfect balance and harmony with it. 

And that Wave is something that is awesome and that has knocked me down so many times when I've fought it.  But it doesn't have to be that way; it's not supposed to be that way.  It's supposed to be joyful.

And this little cartoon penguin is thinking the same thing, and he goes to the grace side of the island, and he does it.  The way it's supposed to be. 

And he's so at rest, although very active surfing, that he can even reach his little penguin wing out in the midst of the rushing water and gently touch the awesome face of the Wave that just wants him to cooperate. 

I can't imagine a better day.

The story behind Shout to the Lord on American Idol

Or some of it anyway:

Leaving out "Jesus" from the song (after the Gives Back show) wasn't approved by those with rights to the song, but they're still happy it was used...

There are believers in the Idol band that accompanies the singers...

Jason Castro goes to church near Dallas...his dreadlocks were mom's idea...

And behind-the-scenes from a Christian insider's perspective on the close of last week's show:

so picture an office, with all of the producers, crew, etc. gathered in watching the live feed at our CBS offices, then this song comes on...an office filled with a few Christians....atheists and agnostic Jews. You could hear a pin drop....it was awesome.....the power that came through....nothing had to be said...no debates....just people being touched more than they realized...producers, writers...crew that had never darkened a church door in their lives, or their only experience with Christians was a negative one.

More at Josh Harris' blog.

All lit up

Watching Spring go thru it's cycle -- the redbuds, the daffodils, then the bradford pears, and now the dogwoods and azaleas -- I keep thinking about the Christmas lights on trees and bushes just a few months ago. 

Spring is something like that; you go, ooooh...look...wow... 

Only there's not a bit of ladder climbing, roof crawling or light stringing done.  It all just happens and we get to watch. 

At Christmas, if you don't do the work, you don't get the dazzle (at least not at your house). 

At Spring, the work's all done and there's nothing to do but be in awe.

Maybe it's just me, but thinking back to Christmas lights, they look kind of...clunky?  Forced?  ...compared to what's happening now.

Is there something to that?  Man-made = work for your reward; God-made = recieve what's already done.

So which display do you enjoy more, think is more impressive -- Christmas or Spring?

Adopt a Terrorist

I had a friend who said he just couldn't pray for a certain President we had -- even though he knew what Jesus said.  I'm guessing he'd have even more trouble adopting a terrorist.  Want to?  You don't have to actually bring him home and make scrambled eggs and bacon and tuck him in at night.  But maybe something good could happen, even from far away.  There's a whole catolog of terrorists to choose from.  Pick yours HERE. 

Six things gracious souls discover

From William R. Newell's Romans: Verse by Verse:

1.  To 'hope to be better' is to fail to see yourself in Christ only   

2.  To be disappointed in yourself, is to have believed in yourself

3.  To be discouraged is unbelief, as to God's purpose and plan for blessing for you

4.  To be proud is to be blind!  For we have no standing before God in ourselves

5.  The lack of divine blessing, therefore, comes from unbelief, and not from failure of devotion

6.  Real devotion to God arises, not from man's will to show it; but from the discovery that blessing has been recieved from God while we were yet unworthy and undevoted

Bedspreads designed to keep kids awake all night

Sears 1973.  I don't think any kids folded the corner of this page over for mom to notice at Christmastime.

Did you see Idol's big finish last night?

After a show that embodied service, compassion and love, they did an ending that linked helping and caring for others with the Tower of Refuge and Strength.

Laugh, cry, mad, think

You might do any or all of that when you read Stuff Christians Like.  Or maybe you might send him a suggestion.  He comes up with new ones every day.  Here's an example of Stuff Christians Like:

#58. Calling people "seekers."

Dear person that does not go to church,

I don't know how to say this, but when you're not around, we call you "seeker." We say things like, "what kind of music will seekers respond to?" or "is that drama seeker focused or not." And when you show up on Sunday, if our church is small enough, our seeker spider sense tingles a little and we really hope the service reaches you.

But before you get mad, please know that the alternative is to call you "lost" or "unsaved" or "sweaty philistine." OK, we don't say that last one. A lot. But my friend Joel said something to me tonight. He said, "you know who the lost were in the New Testament? They were the people Jesus hung out with and loved on the most."

So tonight, even though I'm in marketing and I might want to treat you like a target audience or a demographic, I'm retiring the words "seeker" and "lost." From here on out, I'm just going to call you "the people Jesus loves."

I want one of these

You might, too, if you want to look cool without knowing how to play any instruments.  Yeah, it's real.   

Worship and Kirk Cameron and his new book and telling scary dudes about Jesus

Why do we get all awestruck around famous people?  Are we trying to horn in on their glory?  Is worship so built-in that we can't help it, we've got to do it so bad we'll even misdirect it?  Here's Kirk Cameron's description of what life was like when he was a Growing Pains celebrity:

Wherever I went people catered to me. Limousines carted me off to the next gig. Waiters comped my meals. Flight attendants whispered, “Mr. Cameron, why don’t you come with me?” and escorted me to first class...

When I arrived at a party, everyone sat up and took notice. The room buzzed with not-so-quiet whispers: “Isn’t that Kirk Cameron?” The adoration was obvious in the body language, facial expressions and eagerness of those around me. All of it baffled me beyond belief. I was in the midst of a phenomenon I felt I had no hand in creating.

If I didn’t have something, it was only because I didn’t want it. I was a devout atheist, livin’ large, hanging out with the beautiful people.

Years later when people asked about that time in my life, I defined it like this: Imagine a world where whatever you want is given to you as quickly as possible. When you walk into a room, all the adults smile at you, talk nicely and say, “What do you want? Okay, I’ll give that to you.”

Everything in your life is carefully placed with the intent to make you happy. If you aren’t happy, no expense is too great in order to fix the situation. As far as you can tell, you are the center of the universe. Everything revolves around you, your schedule, your dreams and wishes. You are more important to adults than other kids are. “Why is that?” your little mind asks. And the only answer you can come up with is that you are very, very unique.

People treated him that way voluntarily!  He didn't ask for it, pay for it, steal it or beg for it -- you couldn't get it that way anyway, could you?  It had to be voluntary.  In fact, people paid him, for the priviledge of being in awe of him.  Yup, that's worship. 

Still Growing is his new book.  You can read about it, and how he came to Jesus here on Tim Challies blog.

This is the kind of thing he does today (7 minutes of telling scary strangers about Jesus):

Protection and purpose

When I was 8 or 9 my brother and I would ride our red 20-inch Murray bikes, faaaaast, on the sidewalk down the hill next to the apartment where we lived.  At the bottom of the hill was a busy street.  Right before we got to the bottom, we'd cut left onto the sidewalk that ran along that busy street.  We'd do that over and over again.

I was thinking about that laying in bed half-asleep -- my brother and I may visit the old town this summer and I was reminiscing -- and I realize it was a miracle we didn't one time end up in the street clobbered by a car.  How may zillions of times does God protect kids from horrible accidents without anyone realizing it?

But sometimes there is a horrible accident.  Where was God then?  If he gets credit for protecting, shouldn't he get blame for not? 

If his protection is the priority to me, then that's a normal question. 

But if his purpose is priority to him, then a normal question might be different; and might be a question he asks me -- If there was a time that I could either protect you OR carry out my purpose, and you got to pick, which one would you choose?

My answer to that might be why he doesn't usually leave his purpose up to my choice.

Who's not forgotten

I've never seen this -- maybe you have; it's an email that's been around a while.  I saw it HERE. 

You don’t have to actually take the quiz.
Just read the email and you’ll get the point.

1. Name the five wealthiest people in the world.
2. Name the last five Heisman trophy winners.
3. Name the last five winners of the Miss America contest.
4. Name ten people who have won the Nobel or Pulitzer prize.
5. Name the last half dozen Academy Award winners for best actor and actress.
6. Name the last ten World Series winners.

How did you do?

The point is, none of us remember the headliners of yesterday. These are no second-rate achievers. They are the best in their fields. But the applause dies. Awards tarnish. Achievements are forgotten. Accolades and certificates are buried with their owners.

Here’s another quiz. See how you do on this one:

1. List a few teachers who aided your journey through school.
2. Name three friends who have helped you through a difficult time.
3. Name five people who have taught you something worthwhile.
4. Think of a few people who have made you feel appreciated and special.
5. Think of five people you enjoy spending time with.
6. Name half a dozen heroes whose stories have inspired you.

The people who make a difference in your life are not the ones with the most credentials, the most money, or the most awards. They are the ones that care.

How to be a coupon queen

Dwayne Harrison's wife Michelle is in the Observer today showing how she saves biiiiig bucks on groceries.  You can save 50% on your grocery bill with 2 hours of work per week!  One mom paid for a Disney World vacation!   Everything you need to get started is HERE.

Two-year-old precious princess Lord's Prayer girl

Bigger than your faults

There's at least one place you want to read in the Bible before the kids do -- Genesis 20.  You want to be ready when they ask the obvious question.

Abraham lies -- he says his wife Sarah is his sister.  He's done this before.  He's afraid the king might hurt him to get to his wife.  So thinking Sarah is Abraham's sister, the king takes Sarah into his house.

After awhile, God tells the king -- you are a dead man if you touch her!

The king goes to Abraham and says, Hey, why didn't you tell me she was your wife?!

Then the king tells Abraham to beat it, and gives him a whole bunch of sheep and cattle and servants and money to take with him.  He tells Abraham to go anywhere in the king's kingdom that he wants -- he gets to pick.

Abraham just got blessed big time.  Even though he lied!

Now, he wasn't blessed because he lied, but despite it.  But, still, shouldn't there be some consequences?  Maybe not an angel of death swooping down or the earth opening up, but at least a minor case of boils or your pants catching fire?  Anything but blessing.

This is mighty encouraging to me. 

Only God knows everything going on, everything he's doing, and everyone's heart.  He doesn't have to turn over his sovereignty to some automatic cause-and-effect machine that he's created.  He can decide, case-by-case, the best way to bring about what he has in mind. 

And apparently, when your heart's right, if God has something he's going to do and he's decided to use you, he doesn't have to let your faults stop him.

When you've got friends

At 4 minutes there is no way this baby water buffalo survives.  But, then at 4:30 when things seem beyond hopeless... 

And at 6:30...

This may be a stretch, but I really did think of the church by the end of this.  Individually, the water buffalo doesn't take on a lion.  But when they move together as one body, with a few courageous individuals risking themselves, there is rescue.