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Misty Monday Morning Musings

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Random thoughts running through my head…

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Though we’ve flirted with it in the past, this is the first year that I can say without hesitation that we Americans bypassed Thanksgiving entirely and went straight to Christmas. Boy, doesn’t that say it all.

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I don’t see many leftover Obama/Biden signs. You’d think the pair lost considering how quickly their signs vanished. On the other hand, McCain/Palin signs remain rooted in yards like oaks. I guess some people still believe.

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I predicted this years ago, but few heeded the call. What does it say that we are caught flatfooted again?

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My indulgent snack of choice are Frito Lay Cheetos. I got the last two 10-ounce bags at my local grocery store. The new bags are 8.5 ounces.  Sigh.

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The truly countercultural Christians? Those who are making a vow to pray daily for the new president-elect rather than grind their teeth over his election while plotting his overthrow.

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Charismatics—a group with which I am closely associated, if only as being seen by some as an insider contrarian and quintessential wet blanket—blew it on Lakeland. Then they blew it on the 2008 election. Somewhere on this planet, rational, God-fearing charismatics still exist. I’m beginning to think they are an endangered species, though. Blame it on a reckless inability to test prophetic revelation against Scripture and a misunderstanding of the basic message of those same Scriptures. Add in a complete fascination with using politics to usher in the Kingdom of Heaven while ignoring the Great Commission altogether and you’ve summarized the entire state of far too many charismatic leaders, churches, and followers. God help us if we don’t wise up.

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I simply don’t understand why the online prices of some retail stores are  often lower than their own brick-and-mortar incarnations. Case in point, why does it cost so much more to buy a book at a physical Barnes & Noble location than from their online store? I mean, how dumb does it sound for me to ask a store clerk, “Uh, your price online is 20 percent less for this. Will you match your own online price?”

Another killer:  I need a digital voice recorder for my work now that my old microcassette recorder flaked out on me at an inopportune time. And I need it now. So I walk into a half dozen brick-and-mortar stores; they all have the same price on the model I was considering, $100. What kills me is the average online store is selling the same model for $20-25 less. I’m sorry, but that’s a big, deal-breaking difference. You feel robbed if you buy it from the brick-and-mortar. So I didn’t. I guess I’ll have to make do with flaky and pray really hard. I find it inexplicable that the big box brick-and-mortars, all things considered, can’t get within $10 of the online price at Joe Bob’s Gizmo Shack.

The fact that I’m worrying about the cost of a digital voice recorder when people are living in squalor in much of the world troubles me. I just don’t know what to do about it.

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Children do grow up fast. Especially when you don’t see a particular kid day in and day out. One day they’re teething and the next they’re texting.

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Spotted: $1.69/gal. for gas. It’s like 2005 all over again—except without the hurricanes.

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Am I the only one who thinks that Russia is looking scarier and more unhinged every day?

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I heard on a radio program discussing the economy that China needs to create 24 million new jobs each year to prevent its economy from collapsing. Get this: Employment in China is in a freefall. Say it with me: “Uh-oh.”

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My son asked for one toy for Christmas. One. This weekend only, every discount store cut the price of that toy from $25 to $10. And you guessed it, every store I visited had a gaping hole on its shelf where that toy would have sat. As much as I really hate consumerism, there’s something about that gaping hole that makes one feel like a lousy parent.

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Is it just me or are Lego construction kits the greatest toys ever created for boys?

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Apart from Lego, my son doesn’t seem to like any of the toys I liked as a kid. That would send most dads into a shopping black hole, I think. It’s worse for my wife; she grew up with two sisters and no brothers.

On that same note, my son just started Cub Scouts and my wife drew me aside to ask if the level of mayhem that often ensues at meetings is common with boys under the age of 10—to which I gave the classic “Jack Benny stares into the camera knowingly” pose.

BTW, thank you to all who contributed their comments to my “About a Boy” post. I appreciate the insights.

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One of the greatest American success stories of the last 50 years: Frozen pizzas are W-A-A-A-Y better than they used to be.

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Hey, I know some of you have your own businesses. A few weeks back, I offered to help you promote your business free of charge by increasing your links through my Employ the Body! page. Since Google loves backlinks, here’s your chance to ramp up the visibility of your business’s site, so check out the link.

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My church held its annual Thanksgiving feast yesterday.  Due to enormous containers of food stretching over a dozen full-length folding tables, no one left hungry. The hall was warm and filled with healthy people. No state police broke in and arrested anyone while we prayed. Father God, thank you so very much.


The American Religion on Parade?

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Exodus 32:1-6The image is of an event held this past Wednesday calling Christians to pray for the world’s economies.

A quote unrelated to the event::

Conversion in the U.S. seems to mean we’ve exchanged some of our shopping at Wal-Mart, Blockbuster, and Borders for the Christian bookstore down the street. We’ve taken our lack of purchasing control to God’s store, where we buy our office supplies in Jesus’ name.

—Mark Riddle

I’ll let you draw all the conclusions you wish.

Seen So Far This Christmas Shopping Season…

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Some random things I've observed in the first weeks of the shopping season. Nothing of great spiritual import, just interesting.

  • I've not done much shopping, but already I've noticed that almost every item on the shelves is about 15-25% more expensive than last year, especially if it's made of plastic. I suspect that this shopping season is the first one to reflect higher petroleum prices. Almost every toy that was $30 last year is $35 this year. One classic plastic toy I bought my son last Christmas sold at a regular price of $12.95. This year that same toy is $17.95. Same store, same time of the year, same exact toy.

  • Discount stores like WalMart are lowering their sales figure expectations, while more expensive department stores are seeing a 6% rise in sales over last year. Not many pundits are speculating on this odd discrepancy, but it fits with studies showing the rich getting richer and the poor poorer. If too many discounters have a bad selling season, expect to see them move upscale quickly. I know that Costco continues to upscale their offerings. Now I buy about two-thirds fewer items from them than I did just ten years ago. Aldi, here I come.

  • Who are these people who buy giant battery-powered vehicles for their toddlers to drive? I saw a Hummer model selling for $300. Are you kidding me? The American savings rate is in negative numbers, but people are buying $300 Hummer replicas for their kids to drive around in?

  • Over the past decade, I've purchased most of my Christmas presents online. In nearly every case, I found items online for significantly less, even with tax and shipping figured in. This year, though, the brick and mortar stores seem to be beating online stores in average price.

  • When I was a kid in the Sixties and early Seventies, Spirograph held our interest for years. We had a Super Spirograph kit containing a half dozen ring and bar templates, plus a couple dozen circles, crosses, and even "rotary engine"-shaped pieces to go inside/outside them. I probably cranked out a couple thousand Spirograph pictures over the life of our kit. So this year I go looking for a Spirograph for my son, only to find a scaled-down abomination: one tiny circle template and some weird ovoid, plus about a half dozen circles. What a bitter disappointment. So I check eBay and the best Spirograph kits are going for $50+! Hasbro seriously missed the boat on this new "Deluxe" Spirograph. Way to mess up a perfectly good, inexpensive plaything.

  • Prices for digital cameras jumped right before Christmas. Companies bumped their $200 models to $250 by adding features no one will ever use (built-in sepia tone, anyone?) Canon replaced the excellent Powershot A620 with the A640 and jacked the price $60 for no real reason I can discern. Bah, humbug!

  • Board games seem to be coming back into vogue—and that's great. (Unfortunately, most stores stock the same boring ones everyone's played. Honestly, does anyone find Monopoly fun?) For a break from the ordinary, check out Boardgames with Scott. Scott Nicholson's premise is one of the best uses I've seen for online video snippets: introduce people to new games and demonstrate how they're played. I'd love it if Ticket to Ride (America) showed up under my Christmas tree this year.

  • A pox on toy manufacturers who play up some electronic gizmo with plug-in cartridges one Christmas, then a year later you can't find the cartridges anywhere.

  • I spotted only one Salvation Army bellringer so far. That's sad. They've got a fantastic series of commercials and print ads this year, but the number of bellringers goes down every year.

Sorry if this post appears Grinch-y. I'm usually done shopping by Veterans Day, but this year I can't seem to get into shopping like I once did. Growing up, my family saved all shopping for the year for Christmas, so presents swamped the tree. I'm used to taking hours to open gifts.

This year, though, I'm distracted. I see so much need around me. It's so easy to buy, buy, buy and miss the people whose Christmases will once again be sparse. I think about the elderly people who would much rather have their family pay them some attention than to toss a gift their way one day and ignore them the other 364. Or single parents struggling just to keep a roof overhead and food on the table.

I'm watching more than participating in the six week consumer bonanza that makes up the majority of yearly spending in this country. Frankly, our own Christmas promises to be a little thin this year. Don't know how I'll square that with Christmases fondly remembered, but I still have room to grow.

I believe God's desiring that all of us receive less and give more, thinking outside the bunkers we call home to the less fortunate tucked in the cracks of the world. We got the ultimate gift in Jesus. I pray we don't forget to offer His gift of eternal life to everyone we know.