Remember to pray for the living
And here’s another thought for today:
Viral Friends
Is this Christian viral marketing?
| Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Halberstam died in a traffic accident 5 months before the publication of his landmark book about the US war in Korea. In the days following the author’s death, fellow writers and colleagues volunteered to conduct a national book tour on his behalf. During every engagement, they paid tribute to Halberstam by reading from his new book and offering personal recollections of their friend.
[…] At times we may feel that witnessing to others about our faith in Christ is a frightening task or a burdensome duty. But talking about a Friend whose presence and influence have transformed our lives helps us see it in a new light. The gospel of Christ has always been most powerfully presented by the witness of His friends. — David C. McCasland |
I read the full piece in my print copy of Our Daily Bread — you may read it online here.
Picked On?
Not necessarily! Four measuring sticks to answer the question...
Everyone has felt picked on. (I assume that to be a reasonably accurate statement, don’t you?)
Too easily and too often, though, we feel picked on when we shouldn’t.
So, in the interest of clarifying that statement (as well as in the interest of helping you not feel picked on when you shouldn’t), I offer up four measuring sticks to answer this question:
Are “they” picking on you?
- If they are just fault-finding, yes.
- If they are sincerely concerned about you, no.
- If they want to know your view instead of assuming to know it, no.
- If they want you to tell them more about The Issue in order to balance their own views, no
Does that makes sense to you like it does to me?
But what if you truly are being picked on?
What are godly responses to being picked on?
- Pray blessing on them.
- Be open to what might apply to you anyway.
- Forgive them.
- Look for the opportunities to love them.
- Reject anger, bitterness, self-pity, vengefulness, and further fault-finding.
- Don’t gossip or resort to evil speaking of them.
- Remember: Any “lumps” you get actually are less than you deserve.
Beau Vine
Bovine, actually. Cows, you know.
But first, the owner of the cows around here:
Yup, he’s tilling our garden. For the third time in a week. Voluntarily. Free of charge. He’s a great landlord! (Thank you, TW!)
Note: Some of the images below are clickable-to-see-a-larger-version.
But back to bovine matters. Here’s one of the many mothers around here, accompanied by her child:
The background is fuzzy but it gives you an idea of the beautiful views we have out back.
Here’s that same mother and kid:
Oh, I mentioned the views out back, here’s another one (shot in the evening haze), this one of Oregon’s own Mt. Hood:
Hubbard, Oregon
Way back in 1983-1987, we used to live in the town, in this little house:
Since it’s in the Industrial Park, I’m kinda surprised it’s still there and in use as a private residence. In fact, the mailbox I put up is still there, now in rusty glory:
They’ve got a nice park. Maybe our family will go there for a picnic this summer:
Ruby and I were in Hubbard this morning on a little Let’s Get Reacquainted expedition.
Unsophisticated and Unscientific
And quaint, too.
Day before yesterday I heard a Weather GuessCaster speaking of the sun setting and rising.
What’s with geocentric weather forecasters?! 😯
Do they also believe the earth is flat?
Imagine that. Unsophisticated, I say. And unscientific and quaint.
(I wonder if that forecaster mocks the Bible’s use of that kind of Language of the People.)
Half Alive?
Circuit City died.
This morning, in my email, this:
So it sounds as though they’re now an online-only enterprise. Does that mean they’re half alive?
Probably not.
They set up a page on Twitter — so they must not be too dead. Check this out, though:
Only 20 updates and 516 followers!
Well, I upped that to 517.
(Update: Oooops. I messed up the graphic. Til I fixed it, the number of followers had changed.)
They even have some good We’re Back from the Dead deals. Here’s one that I actually added to my cart:
check it out!
Four gigs! (Mine is 512. Megs, that is.)
At $2.99, I’m guessing that’s a Really Good Deal. But I’ve never heard of Transcend before. And paying $6.99 for shipping kinda takes the Really Good out of the Deal. Even if I took that DVD bundle as well — which is quite enticing to me, too.
So, even though I signed up for an account, no sale.
Oh, hey — I was surprised that I had to open an account. It didn’t let me sign in using my old Circuit City account. In fact, it didn’t even recognize my email address.