Soul and Spirit

Grocery Shopping

Two important lessons, both gleaned from two different grocery stores. And extracted from my cellphone. Beneath each photo, the lesson.

Cholesterol and Fat Liberation Movement
1. Tank up on cholesterol and fat!

Think of it as the CFLM — the Cholesterol and Fat Liberation Movement.

Instead of saying cholesterol-free and fat-free in Spanish, it actually says: cholesterol liberates and fat liberates. 😯

Hence, the lesson caption above.

Alternate lesson: 1b. Have someone knowledgeable edit your translation!

Read it all

Here’s Some Dough and Bread

OK, here’s the headline: NY store owner gives would-be thief $40 and bread.

I read that and thought that sounded so Christian. And uplifting.

So I clicked to read the story, which I excerpt below.

A rifle-toting convenience store owner said he decided to show mercy on a would-be robber after seeing the man collapse into tears and claim he was only committing the crime to support his starving family.

The Long Island store owner provided the bat-wielding man with $40 and a loaf of bread and made him promise never to rob again.

Wow! Isn’t that great! (I really do need to install a thumbs-up emoticon on this blog.)

That sure beats a story I read (yesterday, I think) of a shop owner on trial for murder for repeatedly shooting an unarmed teenage wannabe robber. Anyway, I kept on reading.

“This was a grown man, crying like a baby,” Mohammad Sohail, owner of the Shirley Express convenience store….

Urrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrch! went my thought wheels. That sounds like a Muslim’s name!

Sohail, who moved to the United States from Pakistan about 20 years ago, said he was getting ready to close his store shortly after midnight on May 21 when the man in his 40s entered with a bat in his hand. Sohail said he tried to stall for a moment and then grabbed a rifle he keeps behind the counter and ordered the assailant to drop the bat.

The would-be thief dropped to his knees and begged for forgiveness, Sohail said.

“He started crying that he was out of work and was trying to feed his hungry family,” he said. “I felt bad for him. I mean, this wasn’t some kid.”

He said he tossed $40 to the man, who then stood up and told Sohail he was inspired by the act of mercy and wanted to become a fellow Muslim. Sohail said he led the man in a profession of Muslim faith and the two ended up shaking hands.

Hmmmmm. So what do you make of that, huh?

It’s a great, heart-warming story.

Now I hope the two men eventually choose to follow Jesus instead.

And I hope it doesn’t turn out to be an embellished tale or even a made-up one.

Kissed

It’s June, the very first day thereof!

June — a month with lots of weddings and, presumably, lots of kissing going on.

The sun was rising this morning when I went out to feed the cats, let the hens out, and unchain the dog.

“Kissed by the Rising Sun,” I thought, “makes a good title for a blog post of some photos.”

So I went back in for my little Kodak Easy Share CX7330 digital camera.

Here is my first selection:

Sun kissed rose

Read it all

Pravda Perspective

Well, an editorial columnist’s anyway:

It must be said, that like the breaking of a great dam, the American decent into Marxism is happening with breath taking speed, against the back drop of a passive, hapless sheeple, excuse me dear reader, I meant people.

Pravda?! 😯

Would they know what they’re talking about?

Next what?

Whatever it may be, I am presently thankful for all the freedom and liberty and opportunity and plenty I’ve enjoyed almost my entire life.

Triablogue: Religious demographics in America

This morning my Google Alert for Anabaptist led me to Religious Demographics in America, from which I excerpt forthwith:

Which groups are the net winners and losers in the dynamic process of shifting religious affiliation?

The group that has experienced the greatest net loss by far is the Catholic Church. Overall, 31.4% of U.S. adults say that they were raised Catholic. Today, however, only 23.9% of adults identify with the Catholic Church, a net loss of 7.5 percentage points.

[…]

It is also interesting to see which childhood faiths people leave behind.

[…]

Roughly half of those raised as Protestant (52%) retain their childhood religious affiliation…. Overall, then, 80% of those who were raised as Protestant are still Protestant, either within the same denominational family in which they were raised (52%) or within another Protestant family (28%).

[…]

Of all of the Protestant families, Baptists, Adventists and Lutherans have the highest retention rates, at roughly 60% each. The Holiness, Anabaptist and Congregationalist families, by contrast, have much lower retention rates, below 40% each.

[…]

Two of the religious groups with the lowest retention rates are Jehovah’s Witnesses and Buddhists.

As an Anabaptist of the Mennonite brand, I’m troubled by our low retention rate. 😥

I wonder, though, what our congregation’s retention rate works out to be.

What about yours?

I also wonder what our congregation’s acquisition rate is. Especially from the ranks of the heathen.

What about yours?

Private
Above all, love God!