I thought it was dying down, but lately it seems to be on the rise. Several times in the last couple of weeks I've heard it echoed on television, on the radio, in the media or in my office building... or I keep reading it from unexpected sources on the web. In my opinion, it is one of the most arrogant concepts imaginable.
The concept: The earth is fragile, and if we aren't careful, we'll destroy it.
Just today I read on a church website about 'protecting our fragile earth'.
Now, I'm not going to get into the specifics of the individual debates. In particular, there's plenty of information out there about global warming, 'Houdini the Vanishing Ozone Layer', etc -- I don't subscribe to these apocolyptic belief systems, but if you're interested, knock yourself out.
And I also don't want anyone to misunderstand me, as if I'm saying that we should just trash the planet. There are plenty of very real examples of men, women, companies and governments abusing the environment, and that must be dealt with. I mean, I'm annoyed by needless pollution the same as anyone else -- and incidentally, why is it that we all agree that throwing an empty McDonald's cup out the car window is littering and it's wrong, but it is apparently ok for a smoker to throw his cigarette butt out his driver-side window and onto my windshield on I-35?
Anyway, we should OF COURSE be good stewards of what God gave us. But let's not delude ourselves into thinking that we could destroy the earth. THE EARTH IS NOT FRAGILE. I'm getting to know the Architect and Construction Manager, and I'm pretty sure He made the earth to last until it has served His purpose for it. To think that we could slip up and accidentally end the world ahead of His schedule is not only hilarious, it's the height of arrogance.
Ahhh. Feels better to get it off my chest. :-)
B
Monday, January 24, 2005
Wednesday, January 19, 2005
9 Days
Something hit me last night like a liger on a wicked rampage - our buyers want to close in 10 days, and they need to be out of their apartment just after that. When I heard that yesterday I thought, 'ok, 10 days, that's cool'.
Last night at about midnight it hit me what that really means. We've got to nail down where we're going to move to, pack, move, and close (presumably/hopefully on both houses) in 10 days -- and that was as of yesterday...now we have 9 days! And since Celeste and I just looooove a challenge, we're checking into a house that won't be finished until end of the month or early next month, which means we may end up needing to store all our sweet stuff for a week or two.
(And of course, the truth is that this could still fall through, though that seems unlikely based on the information we have, particularly compared to the near-sale that happened in the last few weeks.)
So ... hold on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen. We're about to kick it into overdrive. :-)
Oh, and by the way, I took the Napoleon Dynamite quiz too -- see below -- although I already knew what the results would be from my cousin who works as a ninja for the CIA.
Brian
Napoleon Dyanamite
Which Napoleon Dynamite character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
Last night at about midnight it hit me what that really means. We've got to nail down where we're going to move to, pack, move, and close (presumably/hopefully on both houses) in 10 days -- and that was as of yesterday...now we have 9 days! And since Celeste and I just looooove a challenge, we're checking into a house that won't be finished until end of the month or early next month, which means we may end up needing to store all our sweet stuff for a week or two.
(And of course, the truth is that this could still fall through, though that seems unlikely based on the information we have, particularly compared to the near-sale that happened in the last few weeks.)
So ... hold on to your hats, ladies and gentlemen. We're about to kick it into overdrive. :-)
Oh, and by the way, I took the Napoleon Dynamite quiz too -- see below -- although I already knew what the results would be from my cousin who works as a ninja for the CIA.
Brian
Napoleon Dyanamite
Which Napoleon Dynamite character are you?
brought to you by Quizilla
Tuesday, January 18, 2005
God's Timing
So Celeste goes to the doctor last Friday for a typical late-pregnancy checkup, everything is fine, and before she leaves the doctor goes ahead and schedules the C-section: Thursday, March 24. It's 10 weeks away, and if all goes as it has gone so far, we already know our child's birthdate.
That kind of messed me up. In a few years the doctor will probably say, 'oh, you'd like to have a baby? Let's just schedule the birth now, say for a year from today. That way you have time for another vacation before morning sickness sets in.' Ok, probably not, but its still weird that we can know (or at least plan) the timing of the birth this far in advance.
And speaking of timing, last week the sale of our house fell through. We were disappointed, but we got over it -- because we know God is driving the bus.
Well, today we got another offer. It nets out to be slightly more than the previous offer, which is great. This buyer appears to have all the loan details worked out already, which is fantastic. They want to close by the 28th -- 10 days -- which is scary. The 'dream home' we had found has already sold to someone else, which is frustrating. But we have a lead on another house with the same floorplan, which is exciting...although we're trying not to get our hopes to high.
God's timing is perfect, and He has a plan. We will keep trusting Him. After all, is there really any viable alternative?
Grace and peace, Brian
That kind of messed me up. In a few years the doctor will probably say, 'oh, you'd like to have a baby? Let's just schedule the birth now, say for a year from today. That way you have time for another vacation before morning sickness sets in.' Ok, probably not, but its still weird that we can know (or at least plan) the timing of the birth this far in advance.
And speaking of timing, last week the sale of our house fell through. We were disappointed, but we got over it -- because we know God is driving the bus.
Well, today we got another offer. It nets out to be slightly more than the previous offer, which is great. This buyer appears to have all the loan details worked out already, which is fantastic. They want to close by the 28th -- 10 days -- which is scary. The 'dream home' we had found has already sold to someone else, which is frustrating. But we have a lead on another house with the same floorplan, which is exciting...although we're trying not to get our hopes to high.
God's timing is perfect, and He has a plan. We will keep trusting Him. After all, is there really any viable alternative?
Grace and peace, Brian
Tuesday, January 11, 2005
Rollercoaster
The past couple of weeks have been a rollercoaster, and unfortunately the end of the ride was not terribly pleasant.
We have had our house on the market for several months, trying to sell it and move into a one-story home, so as not to have to work to keep Piper (and soon the one in the oven) off the stairs. Additionally, we are hoping to end up with one more bedroom than we have now, to have a place to keep the computer and a guest bed.
Over the holiday week in December we landed a contract on our house. It was really exciting, but it left us (me mainly) anxious to get started on finding a new house and doing the many things that would need to be done.
Happily, we found a fantastic house, not only meeting the description above but brand new, complete with lots of upgrades, and most importantly a big discount without which the house would have been out of our price range. We were ecstatic, sending pictures of the house to friends, beginning to talk about how to arrange our furniture in the rooms. Mentally we had already moved in.
Then we got word yesterday that the financing for the buyer of our house is very probably not going to work out. And since our house apparently doesn't have a buyer, we certainly can't afford to buy a new house yet. We were stunned, disappointed in the extreme. It seemed like it should be raining outside instead of a sunny 70 degrees in January.
I went home promptly at the end of the workday. Celeste picked up some chocolate. And we wallowed.
We prayed some, mostly just asking God for peace and if possible to work this out. We also read the next bit for the weekly Bible study at church, John 8:12-30, and I'll say that I did get some peace from something Jesus said in verses 14-15. In defending His testimony about Himself, He says, "I know where I came from and where I am going," and points out that the Jews who were contesting his testimony didn't even know that much about Him.
And in my heart I realized that I know very little about where Jesus came from and where He went, and I know even less about my own life. Fortunately, He already knows the rest of my story.
Lord, I will trust You with my family, with our home, with my career. I will trust You. I will.
B
We have had our house on the market for several months, trying to sell it and move into a one-story home, so as not to have to work to keep Piper (and soon the one in the oven) off the stairs. Additionally, we are hoping to end up with one more bedroom than we have now, to have a place to keep the computer and a guest bed.
Over the holiday week in December we landed a contract on our house. It was really exciting, but it left us (me mainly) anxious to get started on finding a new house and doing the many things that would need to be done.
Happily, we found a fantastic house, not only meeting the description above but brand new, complete with lots of upgrades, and most importantly a big discount without which the house would have been out of our price range. We were ecstatic, sending pictures of the house to friends, beginning to talk about how to arrange our furniture in the rooms. Mentally we had already moved in.
Then we got word yesterday that the financing for the buyer of our house is very probably not going to work out. And since our house apparently doesn't have a buyer, we certainly can't afford to buy a new house yet. We were stunned, disappointed in the extreme. It seemed like it should be raining outside instead of a sunny 70 degrees in January.
I went home promptly at the end of the workday. Celeste picked up some chocolate. And we wallowed.
We prayed some, mostly just asking God for peace and if possible to work this out. We also read the next bit for the weekly Bible study at church, John 8:12-30, and I'll say that I did get some peace from something Jesus said in verses 14-15. In defending His testimony about Himself, He says, "I know where I came from and where I am going," and points out that the Jews who were contesting his testimony didn't even know that much about Him.
And in my heart I realized that I know very little about where Jesus came from and where He went, and I know even less about my own life. Fortunately, He already knows the rest of my story.
Lord, I will trust You with my family, with our home, with my career. I will trust You. I will.
B
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Missing my Family
One time a couple years ago, a friend of mine was trying to get me to go somewhere on a Wednesday night, and I said no because I had church. My friend said, 'Won't God let you miss just this once?' I found myself smiling as I explained that its not that I'll feel guilty if I miss, or that I need a permission slip or something to be sure I get my Wednesday 'credits' toward a heavenly degree program.
The reason I hate to miss is because I love being there with my family, praising God, learning about Him, listening for Him. That was a fun day for me, realizing that I really felt that way about the body at SBC.
Having said that, I've missed being at Southlake for about 10 days now, and I'm practically itching to be there. I was traveling during the holiday week, then I was sick on Sunday and on Tuesday night. So tonight we have a gathering and I will be there.
How about you?
B
The reason I hate to miss is because I love being there with my family, praising God, learning about Him, listening for Him. That was a fun day for me, realizing that I really felt that way about the body at SBC.
Having said that, I've missed being at Southlake for about 10 days now, and I'm practically itching to be there. I was traveling during the holiday week, then I was sick on Sunday and on Tuesday night. So tonight we have a gathering and I will be there.
How about you?
B
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