Month: October 2010

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Pray and Do Not Lose Heart

I was reading the news yesterday morning when I stumbled across a story about two Somali girls , aged 15 and 16, who were dragged off the street, accused by radical Muslim rebels of being spies, prohibited from seeing their families, and then—in shock and in tears—publicly executed.

I can’t get their deaths out of my mind.

Maybe it’s because we have two girls, who used to be teenagers. I see their faces superimposed on the CNN photographs.

Maybe it’s because it’s such a horrific story. So senseless. So evil.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been praying for God to break my heart for the lost and the hungry and the hurting.

There’s nothing I can do to help those two teens. I don’t know if they knew God or not. Had they ever had a chance to learn about Jesus?

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Get Radical

radical-book-coverAre you happy with your life? Are you blessed? Are you pursuing the American Dream of a good job, a nice family, and a home filled with everything you need, and a bit more beside?

Even with the economy the way it is, most of us still hope that things will improve in the future—that we’ll someday be able to have that house-with-the-picket-fence and all the trimmings.

We love to read verses such as “The blessing of the LORD brings wealth, and He adds no trouble to it” (Proverbs 10:22) and, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Romans 8:1). We hear sermons about verses like this; we repeat them to others. As God’s children, we delight in the truth that they apply to us.

But what about some other verses…

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Creating Great Passwords

My sister-in-law’s online email account was hacked recently, and now everyone on her mailing list is getting vast quantities of incredibly annoying spam. She’s not the only one—apparently some [choose your own derogatory adjective] [choose your own insulting noun] decided that we all needed more useless email. (Does anyone actually buy from spam emails?)

In any case, it turned out that her password was too easy to figure out, at least for a computer with a lot of time on its “hands.” This led to a discussion about how to pick a good password. Here is what my very knowledgeable husband had to say:

  • A GOOD password is easy to remember, hard to guess
  • Change it regularly, but not so often that you can’t remember all the passwords you need to know (which usually means both current and recent ones)
  • Never write it down. If you have to write it, it’s either too complicated to remember or you have too many passwords to remember.

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People of Church

Forget “People of Walmart.” Try “People of Church.” While I haven’t seen anyone at my church wearing four-sizes-too-small glowing pink-and-purple spandex, we are definitely a motley bunch. In any church (and especially one as large as ours) there are bound to be some “interesting” people.

Some are exuberant worshipers, dancing in the aisles, while others refuse to even lip-sync the words, standing with arms folded across their chests. We have Mohawks and buzz cuts, long haired hippies and intimidating (until you get to know them) bikers in their church leathers. Maybe we even have you!

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I’ll Do That Later

I wish I hadn’t procrastinated.

The room was still dark when I woke up this morning. Squinting at the clock, I read the glowing numbers: 4:25. Ugh. I rolled over and tried to go back to sleep, but my brain had already switched on—then immediately kicked into overdrive. I tried to tell it that I didn’t need to get up for another two hours, but it wasn’t listening. “Taxxxxesssss,” my brain hissed, reminding me of Gollum.

That’s right. Today is the deadline. I can’t put it off any longer. I have to fill our my quarterly sales tax forms—one for the city and one for the county/state. I imagine the FBI knocking on my door in the middle of the night and dragging me away for sales tax delinquency. I shiver.

“Sales tax? That’s all?” you ask. “What’s the big deal?”

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What Shall We Then Eat? (Part 3)

A while back, I posted a couple of blogs about eating responsibly—“What Should We Then Eat?” (Part 1 was about eating to be healthy, and Part 2 was about eating with the environment in mind.) Today, I’d finally like to finish this mini-series with “Part 3: Eating with a Social Conscience.”

Here in the U.S., it’s easy to forget that our food choices have a global impact. A quick trip through the market can remind us. There are bananas from central America, coffee from Kenya, and apples from Australia. Tropical species (such as chocolate) have to be imported. Out of season produce is grown in the southern hemisphere and flown north so we can eat oranges all summer and grapes all winter. All in all, when it comes to food choices, we’re pretty spoiled.

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Pruning for Fruitfulness

I’ve been moping around the house a lot lately, feeling moderately miserable. It’s nothing earth-shattering—nothing that won’t mend in time. I’ve just been feeling a bit of emotional pain.

God’s been after me with a pair of pruning shears.

Yeah, ouch.

As a gardener, I’m very familiar with the whys and wherefores of pruning. Jesus must have been familiar with pruning as well. He uses the analogy a number of times, especially in John 15, when he says: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful” (John 15:1-2, italics mine).

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Engaging Thoughts

Last week I asked for your opinions about engagements and betrothals. Is an engagement necessary? What does the Bible have to say on this topic? What benefits do we get from spending some time promised but not married? How long should the wait be, and why?

Several people commented that being engaged gives people time to seriously work through issues they had avoided until then.  I agree—and thought of a few more things. Here is what I came up with on this subject.

It helps to realize that for the most part, God is silent on how long this waiting period needs to be. The Bible describes cultural norms that called for a period of time between a betrothal and actually living together. While Paul (who strongly urged believers to stay single for the sake of the Gospel) told the Corinthians that it’s better to marry than to burn with passion (1 Cor. 7:9), there are no instructions on the proper length of engagements (a modern construct) or betrothals.

So what are we to do? In our culture, most people are engaged for some period of time between making a decision to wed and actually making life-long vows. There are definite benefits we gain during this time.

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Hot Broccoli Cheese Dip

The “party season” is coming up, and this hot broccoli dip is perfect for a crisp—or snowy—autumn evening. It somewhat resembles the more common spinach artichoke dip, which I can’t eat because I’m allergic to spinach. You can trade the Jack cheese for another variety if you like, but don’t overpower the taste of the vegetables.

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