Well, once again, I have been remiss in the blogging world! I don't know how many times I have started again, only to stop once more. Needless to say the past year has been harried, to say the least, but an accelerated growing process. That's one way of putting it. As a result, I have decided that as I step into a new place in the next month...new, but familiar...that the blogging must commence again.
On that note, I shall leave you with a poem:
Happy the Man
Happy the man, and happy he alone,
He who can call today his own:
He, secure within, can say,
Tomorrow do thy worst, for I have lived today.
Be fair or foul or rain or shine
The joys I have possessed, in spite of fate, are mine.
Not Heaven itself upon the past has power,
But what has been, has been, and I have had my hour.
-John Dryden-
1631-1700
4.12.07
24.2.07
The Beauty of the Word
I have always known, it has been there, right in front of me, I knew what it was, what it was about, I knew that it was rich, I knew that it was the greatest work ever written...yet, I have been struck...I have been drawn. As of late, the Lord has been working on my heart to reach deeper and further into His word, and I have been struck by its beauty. Oh, the beauty of the truth! What an amazing gift that we can read a book and know, undoubtingly that every word it says is good and true and beautiful!
"Who has believed what they heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord has been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and lilke a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He has oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul t the death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors."
-Isaiah 53
"Who has believed what they heard from us? And to whom has the arm of the Lord has been revealed? For he grew up before him like a young plant, and lilke a root out of dry ground; he had no form or majesty that we should look at him, and no beauty that we should desire him. He was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not. Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. But he was wounded for our transgressions; he was crushed for our iniquities; upon him was the chastisement that brought us peace, and with his stripes we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He has oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth; like a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and like a sheep that before its shearers is silent, so he opened not his mouth. By oppression and judgment he was taken away; and as for his generation, who considered that he was cut off out of the land of the living, stricken for the transgression of my people? And they made his grave with the wicked and with a rich man in his death, although he had done no violence, and there was no deceit in his mouth. Yet it was the will of the Lord to crush him; he has put him to grief; when his soul makes an offering for sin, he shall see his offspring; he shall prolong his days; the will of the Lord shall prosper in his hand. Out of the anguish of his soul he shall see and be satisfied; by his knowledge shall the righteous one, my servant, make many to be accounted righteous, and he shall bear their iniquities. Therefore I will divide him a portion with the many, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong, because he poured out his soul t the death and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and makes intercession for the transgressors."
-Isaiah 53
29.1.07
Finding A Balance
Here is a passage from The Screwtape Letters, by one of the greatest apologists of his time, C.S. Lewis. This excerpt is a poignant exhortation to Christians to not be complacent in their faith and to be wary of religion that becomes diluted over time.
"Screwtape offers ways to cleverly exploit the Patient's dry spell:
'But there is an even better way of exploiting the trough; I mean through the patient's own thoughts about it. As always the first step is to keep knowledge out of his mind. Do not let him suspect the law of undulation. Let him assume that the first ardours of his conversion might have been expected to last and ought to have lasted, forever, and that his present dryness is an equally permanenct condition. Having once got this misconception well fixed in his head, you may then proceed in various ways. It all depends on whether your man is of the desponding type who can be tempted to despair, or of the wishful-thinking type who can be assured that all is well. The former type is getting rare among humans. If your patient should happen to belong to it, everything is easy. You have only got to keep him out of the way of experienced Christians (an easy task nowadays), to direct his attention to the appropriate passages in scripture, and then to set him to work on the desperate design of recovering his old feelings by sheer will-power, and the game is ours. If he is of the more hopeful type, your job is to make him acquiesce in the present low temperature of his spirit and gradually become content with it, persuading himself that it is not so low after all. In a week or two you will be making him doubt whether the first days of his Christianity were not, perhaps, a little excessive. Talk to him about 'moderation in all things.' If you can once get him to the point of thinking that 'religion is all very well up to a point', you can feel quite happy about his soul. A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all - and more amusing.'"
"Screwtape offers ways to cleverly exploit the Patient's dry spell:
'But there is an even better way of exploiting the trough; I mean through the patient's own thoughts about it. As always the first step is to keep knowledge out of his mind. Do not let him suspect the law of undulation. Let him assume that the first ardours of his conversion might have been expected to last and ought to have lasted, forever, and that his present dryness is an equally permanenct condition. Having once got this misconception well fixed in his head, you may then proceed in various ways. It all depends on whether your man is of the desponding type who can be tempted to despair, or of the wishful-thinking type who can be assured that all is well. The former type is getting rare among humans. If your patient should happen to belong to it, everything is easy. You have only got to keep him out of the way of experienced Christians (an easy task nowadays), to direct his attention to the appropriate passages in scripture, and then to set him to work on the desperate design of recovering his old feelings by sheer will-power, and the game is ours. If he is of the more hopeful type, your job is to make him acquiesce in the present low temperature of his spirit and gradually become content with it, persuading himself that it is not so low after all. In a week or two you will be making him doubt whether the first days of his Christianity were not, perhaps, a little excessive. Talk to him about 'moderation in all things.' If you can once get him to the point of thinking that 'religion is all very well up to a point', you can feel quite happy about his soul. A moderated religion is as good for us as no religion at all - and more amusing.'"
25.1.07
My Goodness! My Guinness...is Red!
Guinness...The Godfather of all Stouts...The Nectar of the Irish Gods...The "Black Stuff"...
...is undergoing a bit of a makeover this month. According to Diageo, the world's largest alcoholic drinks group and the owner's of Guinness, Guinness launches a trial of this intriguing new draught this month in 142 pubs owned by Mitchell & Butlers. The new Guinness Red uses a lighter barley for the ruby red colouring; yet, will maintain the creamy head of its traditional, darker predecessor and, much to a drinker's delight, its original price. In addition, it will maintain its 4.1 percent alcohol level and will be brewed at the traditional St. James Gate Brewery in Dublin. The trial period will probably last 3-9 months and is one of many trials that Guinness has released.
So, dear, Guinness drinkers alike worldwide...drink on! Just don't be alarmed at the tinge of your draught...it's a purposeful snafu!
Guinness Factoids:
-Guinness is served in 150 countries worldwide.
-10 million glasses of Guinness are consumed every day.
-Though heavily associated with Ireland, the parent company owning Guinness has been headquartered in London since 1932.
24.1.07
The Greatest Blessing
"It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
I consider one of the greatest blessings in life to be friendship. I have been blessed to come into contact with so many wonderful people over the course of my life, and beyond that I have been blessed to call many of them my close and dear friends. There are many different kinds of friends...From ones that you see regularly, to ones that you may go months without speaking with, and yet when you do, it is as if you had just spoken the day before. From dear, close friends who are merely separated by distance, to acquaintances that grow and blossom into beautiful friendships.
As Emerson states with friends we, "can afford to be stupid with them," which I consider one of the greatest blessings of all. Because, to be stupid with a person does not just mean that you are "senseless" it means that you can be yourself, there are no boundaries, you're allowed to throw caution to the wind and truly be you (which does, as you can see in a couple of the pictures does mean a bit of senseless fun). One of my favorite quotes on friendship is by C.S. Lewis, "Friendship is born at that moment when one person says to another, 'What?! You Too?! I thought I was the only one.'"
I am blessed, blessed to have so many friends. Friends to learn from, walk with, and love.
Unfortunately...I didn't have pictures of everyone...but I love you all!
3.1.07
Blue & Orange Country
BOISE BRONCOS WIN 2007 FIESTA BOWL!!!!!So, I haven't posted in...three months, and so I thought it would be appropriate to come back to the blogging world at the New Year, with something truly exciting. The David and Goliath experience of the BCS series...one of the greatest wins in the history of college football...the Boise State Broncos beating the Oklahoma State Sooners, in Arizona, in one of THE most exciting games ever witnessed in college football.
Boise is definitely famous for one thiing in this country and that is it's Smurf Turf, but often times, people tend to forget that they're prety good at the football part too. The Broncos came in as the definitive underdogs, commentators all over the networks felt assured of the stability and toughness of the Sooners. Yet, from the get go, the underdog fought, and he fought hard.If you missed the game, or turned the game off for some reason, go find the recap on the television or internet somewhere. However, you wouldn't have been the first to fall asleep, even Florida coach admits to dozin off: "I hate to say this, I fell asleep and my wife kept hitting me. She said it was the greatest football game she ever saw." Amen and amen.
And so, the Broncos finished off their year 13-0...the perfect season...with the perfect game...
And there, second in from the left, is the athletic director, my Uncle Gene.
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