Life Outside The Box

Why is it that parents continue to torture their children for the sake of a picture this time of year.  Come on mom and dad, you put little junior or junioretta on the lap of a big fat guy with a big bushy white beard dressed in a red fuzzy suit and tell them not to be scared.  Think about it, you spend 364 days a year telling your kids not to mess with strangers and then all of a sudden it’s time to sit in the lap of “that jolly old elf”.  Quick, snap the picture before the kids realize where they are.  I even saw a report on the news the other day on how to deal with kid’s fear of Santa Claus.  I don’t care whether you tell your kids if Santa Claus is real or not but for the love don’t force them to sit in his lap.  Does this qualify as a rant?

Just got done watching the Vikings beat the da’ Bears on Sunday Night Football.  I guess I’m a Vikings fan again after I yelled and cheered in a subdued way at the TV.  I guess it’s a tough habit to kick after being a Vike’s fan for 23 years.  

Skol Vikings! Let’s win this game
Skol Vikings! Honor your name
Go get that first down
Then get a touchdown
Rock ‘em, sock ‘em, FIGHT, FIGHT, FIGHT! FIGHT!
Go Vikings, run up the score, you’ll hear us yell for more!
V-I-K-I-N-G-S
Skol Vikings, let’s go!

The Church is looking for better methods; God is looking for better men. The Holy Ghost does not flow through methods, but through men. He does not come on machinery, but on men. He does not anoint plans, but men…Men of prayer.” –E. M. Bounds

I have been shamed by all three regular readers of this blog into posting.  You are probably asking yourself this question, “He has a blog, a blog should have posts, why hasn’t he posted anything in almost a month?”.  Simple answer is this - I haven’t had much to say.  I started this blog a little while after an accident that is chronicled in the “Burn” section of this blog.  I had a lot of sitting around time during my recovery. Time to read quite a bit and ponder things.  (I’ve loved that word ponder since I first saw Pinky and the Brain!)  In my life pondering is directly connected to blogging, since I haven’t done much pondering in the last month I haven’t done much posting.  Okay, no posting.  Today, all that has changed.  Today, I pondered.  

As many of you know I am a history geek and I also love to read.  I have been blessed with the ability to read quickly, actually very quickly, and retain what I have read.  This is a blessing in that I can finish a book in a few hours.  Last night I picked up three books at Books-A-Million.  Setting me loose in any bookstore is like turning an alcoholic loose in a liquor store.  I picked up three history books, two on the Depression and one on how Hitler came to power in Germany.  

Why books on the Depression?  You hear much talk these days about how we are headed into the next Depression and I wanted to do some reading on the causes of the Depression as well as what it was like during that time in our history.  My dad, born in 1919, and my mom, born in 1922, both grew up in small towns in Maine.  I remember asking them about what it was like during the depression.  They both said nothing much changed for them, things weren’t that great before the Depression anyway in their little corner of Maine.  The book I started with is call The Forgotten Man by Amity Shlaes.  I am about halfway through it and it is definitely some great pondering material.  

I’ll be posting some thoughts on the book and maybe some other random thoughts.

Here’s a few thoughts, things I did over the last few days, and other stuff.

• I thought we had a great service Sunday morning but I refuse to use the phrases “off the hook” and “over the top” or the word “amazing”.  
• Later in the afternoon on Sunday I jumped on my motorcycle and rode up to Devils Den State Park and then to the new Lake Fort Smith park.  It was beautiful up in the mountains with the leaves just starting to change.  It was cool enough at times where I wished I had a jacket on and then I would break through into a sunny spot and warm up.  Susan and I will go back up there in a few weeks when the leaves have changed.  This was the first time I have ever gone to either park.  It’s funny how you can live somewhere almost six years and not go to any local scenic spots.
• Susan and I drove over to Tulsa today and had a “divine connection” lunch.  We met a couple from Ireland, Paul and Karen Brady, who pastor Living Rivers Church in Ballymena.  Julie Beemer kept telling us we needed to meet this couple and we were so blessed to have that opportunity today.  
• At our Leadership Meeting on Sunday night we had a wonderful time of prayer.  The Lord has been dealing with both Susan and I that we need to increase times of prayer and also we need to have some days of fasting and prayer.  
• I tried calling Evan’s cell phone today a couple of times.  Once was to ask her what kind of cheesecake she wanted from the Cheesecake Factory and the other was to tell her I didn’t buy any cheesecake.  Too bad for you Evan, maybe next time.