Pushing the immortal envelope

I would love to go BASE jumping but only if I could be sure that I wouldn’t be dashed to pieces on the side of a mountain. I think best case scenario I would spend the entire jump screaming in terror and the rest of my life with post traumatic stress disorder. Worst case scenario I would pass out part way down the mountain and billy goats would be picking little bits of me out of their teeth… on second thought I’m not sure which is the worst case scenario.
Anyways, it’s pretty cool to experience... vicariously.


Learning to fly - Pink Floyd
Into the distance, a ribbon of black Stretched to the point of no turning back A flight of fancy on a windswept field Standing alone my senses reeled A fatal attraction is holding me fast, How can I escape this irresistible grasp?
Gotta keep my eyes from the circling sky
Tongue-tied and twisted just an earthbound misfit, I...

Is there some deep desire in us to fly? I think so and it looks like some day we will, metaphorically and literally.

but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. - Isaiah 40:31

For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. - Thessalonians 4:16-17

I’ll save up my flight angst for the afterlife when I’m an immortal. Unless you are a trained BASE jumper I suggest you do the same. However, you can check it out now through the relative safety of your computer by clicking the links below.

As a Lamb to the slaughter

He was oppressed and He was afflicted, Yet He did not open His mouth; Like a lamb that is led to slaughter, And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers, So He did not open His mouth.- Isaiah 53:7

I found this video from the Passion of the Christ put to the song “Hero", I think it's well done.

I looked up the definition for Meekness and I found; “humbly patient or docile, as under provocation from others” I once heard a better definition; “power in perfect control”.

Jesus the Son of God allowed men to shame Him, torture Him and became a curse for us. He could’ve called down legions of angels to utterly destroy the men who did this to Him. He could’ve stopped the mouths of His accusers, the hands of his tormentors, ended the pain and suffering at any moment… but He didn’t. In fact, not only did He not take revenge, He forgave them. I’m in awe.

I hope that I am counted worthy to suffer shame for His name and I hope He gives me the strength to accept it. He was meek but He wasn’t weak, great men and women endure torture and death for their beliefs, only the Son of God could endure and hold His power and authority in perfect control throughout.

Post scriptum
I watched the Passion of the Christ again this Good Friday with my oldest son and his cousin. Of course it’s a difficult film to watch, it’s not something you watch for enjoyment but to remember. At the part where Pilate presents Barabbas and Jesus and asks who the crowd wants to have released I saw a picture of an Old Testament scapegoat that I had never seen before.

He is to cast lots for the two goats—one lot for the LORD and the other for the scapegoat. Aaron shall bring the goat whose lot falls to the LORD and sacrifice it for a sin offering. But the goat chosen by lot as the scapegoat shall be presented alive before the LORD to be used for making atonement by sending it into the desert as a scapegoat. – Leviticus 16:6-10

The man who releases the goat as a scapegoat must wash his clothes and bathe himself with water; afterward he may come into the camp. – Leviticus 16:26
When the crowd had gathered, Pilate asked them, "Which one do you want me to release to you: Barabbas, or Jesus who is called Christ?" For he knew it was out of envy that they had handed Jesus over to him. – Matthew 27:17-18

When Pilate saw that he was getting nowhere, but that instead an uproar was starting, he took water and washed his hands in front of the crowd. "I am innocent of this man's blood," he said. "It is your responsibility!"
All the people answered, "Let his blood be on us and on our children!"
Then he released Barabbas to them. But he had Jesus flogged, and handed him over to be crucified. – Matthew 27:24-26

My dog Molly

I love my dog but sometimes she makes me so angry that I barely restrain myself from SNAPPING. I feel like Bruce Banner “Don’t make me angry Molly, you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry”. Only difference is I don’t get all green and buff.

A couple of years ago she ate our Robbie Burns haggis right out of the grocery tote. THAT’S MY HAGGIS! Today she ate some ham that was on the counter. =: \ ARGHHHH!!!!

Okay… okay… deep breath in… exhale… ok… I’m calm now

All in all she is a good dog. She was abandoned and taken into the pound when some friends of ours adopted her. They gave her to us when they couldn’t look after her anymore. She sleeps beside me every night. If I sleep on the other side of the bed she moves over to my side, except when my wife was pregnant then she slept on her side and was very protective of her and our newborn baby girl. She didn’t get jealous when we no longer gave her attention and spent all our time with the baby. She never complains when we don’t take her for a walk and she appreciates every moment when we do. She paces back and forth under our dinner table and never lets a crumb that falls to the floor go to waste. Unlike my children who most days seem to not even care if they eat and what is served often receives a turned up nose instead of thank you. Usually the “eat your dinner or there’s no dessert” threat is invoked.

Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon. A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to him, crying out, "Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession." Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to him and urged him, "Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel." The woman came and knelt before him. "Lord, help me!" she said. He replied, "It is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." - Matthew 15:21-26

This was my reading a few days ago and I’ve been thinking about it all week. This woman amazes me. She obviously loved her daughter. She was so persistent when Jesus was ignoring her! And when He calls her a dog she parries His proverb with her own. She risked and endured humiliation, insult and rejection for her little girl. Why is it that when we have something for free we tend to take it for granted? Guaranteed there is someone who would die for what we have. I wonder what God feels when His children ignore the gifts He gives them. When as Keith Green put it “you prefer the light of your TV”

I don’t know about you, but I identify with the Syrophoenician woman. Whenever I read this I’m hoping that she gets her request granted.

Jesus left that place and went to the vicinity of Tyre. He entered a house and did not want anyone to know it; yet he could not keep his presence secret. In fact, as soon as she heard about him, a woman whose little daughter was possessed by an evil spirit came and fell at his feet. The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter. "First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs." "Yes, Lord," she replied, "but even the dogs under the table eat the children's crumbs." Then he told her, "For such a reply, you may go; the demon has left your daughter." She went home and found her child lying on the bed, and the demon gone. - Mark 7:24-30

What will we be remembered for?

“If I could ask you to think a hundred years ahead, to imagine what we, and our times, will be remembered for, I would venture three things: the Internet, the war on terror and the fate of the continent of Africa.” - Bono

It’s overwhelming to think about the problem of hunger in the world, it’s easier to not think about it at all. During World War II the British army was saved from certain destruction at Dunkirk by the military and ordinary British civilians in whatever little boats they had available. Good thing they didn’t stick their heads in the sand or we’d likely be a ½ century into the “Thousand Year Reich”.

Of course we can’t end world hunger on our own but each of us could help one person. To anyone who says “I can’t afford the $35/month it costs” I would suggest try eating just rice for dinner one night a week and use the money you save, $8-10 / per meal x 4.5 weeks / month = $36 - $45. We call it sacrifice, much of the world is content to have rice to eat and clean water to drink.

“To satisfy the world's sanitation and food requirements would cost only US$13 billion, what the people of the United States and the European Union spend on perfume each year.” http://library.thinkquest.org/C002291/high/present/stats.htm

“Ten million people die every year of hunger and hunger-related diseases. Only eight percent are the victims of high-profile earthquakes, floods, droughts and wars. The rest are often forgotten.” http://www.solcomhouse.com/hunger.htm

I heard a story once about a little child who was walking along the beach and came across thousands of small, silver fish who were caught on the beach after the tide had gone out. He was picking them up one at a time and throwing them back in the water. A man came along and questioned him saying, “There’s thousands of fish here, maybe millions, you can’t possibly save them all”
“No” the little boy replied as he kept picking up the fish and dropping them back in the water. “But to the ones I do it’s the whole world”

"Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke and to let the oppressed go free and break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry and bring the homeless poor into the house;
When you see the naked, to cover him; and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?

Then your light will break out like the dawn, and your recovery will speedily spring forth; and your righteousness will go before you;The glory of the LORD will be your rear guard. Then you will call, and the LORD will answer; you will cry, and He will say, 'Here I am'
If you remove the yoke from your midst, the pointing of the finger and speaking wickedness, and if you give yourself to the hungry and satisfy the desire of the afflicted, then your light will rise in darkness your gloom will become like midday.
And the LORD will continually guide you, and satisfy your desire in scorched places, and give strength to your bones; and you will be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters do not fail.” - Isaiah 58:6-11