Misty Monday Morning Musings

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.

Thoughts for a Rainy September Friday

It’s one of those soggy days in southern Ohio that presages autumn. It’s also one of those days where my mind reels from a whirlwind of small thoughts, many inspired by the political season now upon us. So consider today a showcase. Maybe one of these will grow up and become a bigger post someday.

I’ve been thinking a lot about silence. (I guess if you perceive silence as a friend, you HAVE the ability to think.) If “Be still and know that I am God” is one of the hallmark verses of the Old Testament, what does it say about our ability to know God that we fill our days with noise and a blur of activity? I find it strange that I know adults, not children, who confess that they can’t sit in silence for a half hour without squirming and whining about it.

One other verse that strikes me as unknown in America 2008 is “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” If we treat fellow Christians who disagree with us like the spawn of hell, how is it possible that any of us could muster even a mustard seed of love for our genuine enemies? And why is it that we are so quick to disagree angrily yet so slow to pray for opponents? Notice, too, that I use the word opponents. It’s a long road from opponents to enemies. Someone please invite me to the next prayer meeting wherein Christians spend an hour praying for their enemies. I sadly suspect I’ll need a very expensive plane ticket to get there.

If Jesus is the Prince of Peace, why is it that American Evangelicals seem to have no concept of what it means to practice peace or work as ambassadors on behalf of it? Time and again, it seems to me that Evangelicals who discuss political issues are quick to include that they are “for the war effort,” yet NEVER, EVER say they are “for the peace effort.” Does a peace effort even exist in American churches outside of dead, liberal mainline denominations and a handful of Quakers?

Every year, the comment that “America is a Christian nation” loses more of its cachet. Consider that four people out of five in this country self-label as Christians and then ask a critical question: What would our nation look and act like if those four out of five were replaced by Christians from Palestine circa 70 AD? Am I the only one believes the difference in practice and influence would be a startling one?

What is the goal of an education? For much of the history of our country it was to create adults with a high, lasting understanding of civic responsibility. In that, education was never viewed as self-serving, but as a necessary means to strengthen society and the body politic. Now it’s viewed as only a pathway to greater amounts of personal income. Is it any wonder then that our nation is in trouble economically, socially, morally, and spiritually? When George Barna polls Evangelicals and finds that a greater percentage are worried about getting their kids into a prestigious college than ensuring they know Christ, then the wheels have not only fallen off the last vestiges of Christian education in this country, but the entire vehicle has burst into hellish flames.

It’s bizarre to me that people seem to be baffled by the denominational affiliation of Sarah Palin. Since when were the Assemblies of God considered to be a fringe group? This is what happens when all your political pundits are lapsed Episcopalians or Presbyterians-in-name-only.

An independent is running in the 2nd Congressional District in Ohio, my district. This has long been considered one of the most Republican districts in the entire country. Republican candidates have in the past won this district with nearly 80 percent of the vote. This has not been the case recently as the GOP has consistently let conservative voters down. In fact, when a real alternative was offered to the GOP incumbent now in office, game-playing by party reptiles snuffed out his candidacy. This is just part of the reason why I will be voting for David Krikorian (I). I think many other people will be voting for him also. That an independent has received the endorsement of the Cincinnati Fraternal Order of Police is astonishing to me in these days of party politics. The irony is that the GOP alternative candidate who was torpedoed by the GOP bigwigs in town had consistently garnered the Cincy FOP’s endorsement in the past in the local offices he held.

More than anything else politically, I long to see genuine orators and statesmen return to lead our country in the days ahead. I believe they will not be these men and women of privilege, these millionaires we keep electing, but average Joes and Janes of principle and conviction. Those people are out there. We just need to stop voting for the ones who keep them down. I think that every Christian in America needs to stop supporting parties and start support worthy candidates. If that means abandoning long-held party affiliations, then we must. Character counts, and too many people in office today are sorely lacking it.

With the local forecast for the next five days filled with clouds and rain, I suspect that I’ll be doing more thinking in the days to come.

What are you thinking?

Miscellaneous Thoughts on a Labor Day Weekend

Spent most of the week “riding the chair” as I like to say. Misunderstood a timetable point on a project I was working on, so I had to kick it into overdrive. Cerulean Sanctum went on the backburner. Apologies if I felt a bit distant and uninvolved this week.

Here’s what I’ve been thinking:

I hated Blue Like Jazz and didn’t even bother to finish it—something I never do, even with the worst books—but I thought Don Miller’s prayer at the Democratic National Convention was worthy in light of the venue. Yes, it did have a liberal feel to it and, yes, he did absolve others from believing in Jesus by using himself as a proxy for their belief in his comments at the end, and, yes, he could have been more of a burning witness for Christ, but he did one thing that I admired: He touched on all the social aspects of the Gospel that never get one hint of mention during a typical prayer at a GOP/Evangelical-dominated event. We can say what we will about how we live out the Gospel, but Miller’s prayer highlights one very sad truth about American Christians: Each of us has a half-empty cup when it comes to understanding what it means to live out the full Gospel of Jesus Christ on a practical, daily basis.

As for Obama, for someone who keeps talking about change and pushing past old paradigms, he could not have chosen a bigger old paradigm ball-and-chain than Joe “Tony Blair Said It and So Will I” Biden. I mean, seriously. Talk about “old boy networks” and “this is my time” privilege! Joe Biden? Some DNC bigwigs took Obama into a back room and said, “If you have any party loyalty at all, you WILL be choosing the biggest character we owe now that Ted Kennedy’s out of the picture.” Seriously. That conversation happened. I’ll bet good money on it.

This just in: John McCain shows he’s got the mojo Obama lacks in picking veeps: It’s Sarah Palin, governor of Alaska, and a darned good choice, too. She’s the closest thing to Iron Lady Margaret Thatcher that we’ve seen in American politics since Elizabeth Dole ( whom I thought was a more viable presidential candidate than her husband, Bob).

The more I think about it, the more I realize that one of the most important and influential figures of the 20th century was not a politician, but an explorer, filmmaker, inventor, scientist, firebrand, and intellect: Jacques-Yves Cousteau. He’s one of the most underestimated and overlooked figure of our day. To say he’s the greatest person to come out of 20th century France takes no effort. His global influence even after his death is extraordinary. Do the research and you’ll see what I mean.

Doesn’t it bother you that we have to go back more than fifty years to begin to find great Americans that commanded the world’s stage? I think nothing speaks louder about the shriveled figures we thrust into the global spotlight today than that sad truth.

In other news, The Wall Street Journal now claims that there are more ultra-rich than ever before in this country. On the other hand, in the same edition, it claims the middle class are getting killed. Hmm. Two Americas? Where have we heard that before?

Irony of the Day: I got my renewal for The Wall Street Journal two weeks ago. One year? $349. Ouch! Six years ago when I started reading it, I paid $149 for a year. Then $179. Then $199. Then $219. Then they offered me $299 for 18 months and I thought I was actually getting a deal. Now it looks like the newspaper of record in the Edelen household is going bye-bye. I guess this is why Rupert Murdoch, the new owner, is one of the world’s richest men. If we need any further commentary on the decline of newspaper readership in the United States, I can post the renewal notice online so we can all cringe.

By far, the most read post on Cerulean Sanctum is this one. It’s also the most Googled post. Every day of the year I get about a dozen search engine hits on that post and hundreds at the start of a new year. What does that say about churches that so many people are Googling to find the direction they need on this issue?

The runner-up in Googling and reading? This post. I’ll leave you to guess why.

Is there any weirder holiday than Labor Day? Honestly, I sometimes get Labor Day and Memorial Day mixed up.

Anyway, have a wonderful, relaxing weekend, no matter what holiday it is.