Soul and Spirit

Shifting

Focus, that is.

Away from blogging so much, that is.

Late last night I decided it is necessary for me to scale back and refocus my footprint on the Web.

Here are some of the particulars of that decision:

  • Cease from posting at Bless! as I have been.
  • Cut back posting here at Ain’t Complicated to once a week.
  • After getting through Proverbs this time, stop posting at Panting Hart (unless it’s to post my “inspirational” images for computer wallpaper and screensavers).
  • Stop being a regular visitor and/or contributor to some blogs.
  • Resume development of Anabaptists.

This is a difficult decision which will be difficult for me to implement.

However, in my reading this morning, these two verses confirm my decision for me:

“Be thou diligent to know the state of thy flocks, and look well to thy herds” (Proverbs 27:23).

“For riches are not for ever: and doth the crown endure to every generation?” (Proverbs 27: 24).

The state of my flocks is not good.

[He that waiteth on his master shall be honoured (Proverbs 27:18)]
from Proverbs 27:18

UPS, the Weather, Me

OK, I don’t have time for this. It’s the last day of the year and I have so much business stuff to take care of before midnight.

But even though I don’t have time for this, I surely can take a little break, no?

So on December 11, Rod & Staff sends me a small shipment of three boxes via the brown shirts (and pants and skirts and trucks and Web site and jets and semis) at UPS. Two of them arrive on the 18th.

It’s a minor inconvenience but, oh well, things happen. It’s surely arriving on the 19th, a mere one day late.

Nope.

Finally on December 24 (yeah, I know, Christmas Eve) I check their Web site.

Shocking! The package is out for delivery on that very day. Even with all the snow and ice. I figured I’d be very surprised to see it. (We live at the top of a tenth mile driveway.)

The next time I checked their site, it was rescheduled for delivery on December 29.

(Now this is getting too long!) Read it all

Best Seats in Church

I like my title — All Welcome (Except on Christmas) — better than the one used by Yahoo! News for this Reuters story:

Some senior German politicians have caused a stir by suggesting that only citizens who pay church tax should be allowed to attend Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve.

Worried that regular churchgoers cannot find a seat due to the popularity of the traditional Christmas service….

What’s the rate of this church tax, ten percent?

And how are the collected monies disbursed?

Martin Lindner, a member of the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) in Berlin, also expressed alarm at the lack of places in church and told Bild that parish members should get tickets entitling them to the best seats.

I wonder where their best seats are?

Where are the best seats in your meeting house? And what makes them so?

Germany’s Catholic and Protestant churches get most of their funding from revenues collected by the tax office.

😯

So most people don’t tithe or give offerings?!

What Comes Next?

That’s the question.

But I have something different in mind with it than you might expect.

So read this first:

Israeli warplanes retaliating for rocket fire from the Gaza Strip pounded dozens of security compounds across the Hamas-ruled territory in unprecedented waves of airstrikes Saturday, killing at least 155 and wounding more than 310 in the single bloodiest day of fighting in recent memory.

As you were “inputting” this information into your head, what came next?

I don’t mean what comes next on the ground in the Middle East.

I mean, after you learned of the above airstrikes, what came next in your thoughts and attitudes?

Read it all

Object of Worship

As a father and a grandfather and a Christian, this makes me sad:

In this April 8, 2008 file photo, mother Sushma holds her daughter Lali at their residence in Saini Sunpura, 50 kilometers (31 miles) east of New Delhi, India. The baby with two faces, two noses, two pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes was born on March 11 in a northern Indian village, where she is doing well and is being worshipped as the reincarnation of a Hindu goddess, her father said.

Source: Yahoo! News

Try Gratefulness (It’s in Season!)

ODOT says rush-hour plowing on I-5 was for drivers’ safety

Citing concern for motorists’ safety, the Oregon Department of Transportation on Wednesday strongly defended its decision to close part of southbound Interstate 5 during Tuesday evening’s rush hour, stranding thousands of holiday travelers and commuters for hours.

Officials said that rapidly deteriorating road conditions had created a dangerous situation that left the agency no choice but to act when it did.

Already jammed with rush hour and holiday travelers, an 11-mile stretch of the freeway — from the Southwest Haines Street exit in Portland to the Charbonneau exit south of Wilsonville — was closed about 4:30 p.m. as a “moving blockade” of ODOT equipment lumbered south at about 5 mph.

I wasn’t there. Not behind the wheel of a “civilian” vehicle. Not behind the wheel of an ODOT vehicle. Not behind the “wheel” at ODOT.

But I still say “Thank you!” to all the folks at ODOT for their work.

And to each one of you ODOT equipment operators on the freeways last evening that got the finger from irate motorists, please accept ten thumbs-up from me for each obscene gesture you got.

And an especially-blessed Christmas to you as well.

Thanks again!

Above all, love God!