Who's to blame?

I am curious. When bad things happen - death of a loved one, especially a young person; natural disaster; someone gets a terminal disease - who is to blame? Do you believe that God causes those things to happen? Did God instigate the tsunami in Southeast Asia 3 years ago? Was it God who gave the loved one cancer? Does God take people when it is their time?
I am curious what you think. Is there anybody out there who is mad because of their perception of God's injustice by letting a bad thing happen to a good person?
Tell me what you think and I will give my opinion over the weekend.

Thoughts on College Ministry

Hey everybody, I am wondering how many of you were involved in some kind of campus ministry when you were in college? Or if you are still in college, how many are involved in any kind of ministry on campus? What kind of ministry were you involved in?
If you weren't involved in college ministry, why not? Was is because of your spiritual condition? Were you interested in college ministry but there were no real opportunities?

I am curious because that is my job, overseeing college ministry in central Missouri. When I think back to my college days, I cannot recall any kind of serious evangelical presence on my campus. Would it have made a difference? Commuter schools are different. Can effective campus ministry be done on a commuter campus?

Help me, people.

Back on the Blog Horse: Review of Wilco Concert

Time to start blogging again. What do I start with, music of course!

Saw Wilco last week. They were playing in Columbia. I had almost bought the tickets weeks earlier. 25 bucks a piece, plus babysitter, probably over 70 bucks on the whole. I found out that they were playing outside. I wasn’t sure how good that would sound and I also asked myself, “Do I want to pay for a concert that I could hear for free?” Is it cheap of me? Sure. But I also want to see Spoon in a couple of weeks, so I decided to spend my money wisely. Plus, I saw Wilco in Springfield less than a year ago. We decided, however, to grab Maggie and go downtown and listen to a few songs. We missed the first song, from the new cd, “You Are My Face.” We came out of a neat coffee house and they were just starting “I Am Trying To Break Your Heart.” I was ready to stay for the evening. They proceeded to play songs from Yankee Hotel Foxtrot with one from A Ghost is Born thrown in (Handshake Drugs, my favorite from that cd).

On the whole, they played 6 songs from the new cd (they also played Side with the Seeds, Impossible Germany, Sky Blue Sky, Hate It Here, Walken). They played about that many from what many think is their best release Yankee Hotel Foxtrot (they also played I’m the Man Who Loves You, Pot Kettle Black, War on War, Jesus, etc., Heavy Metal Drummer).

We stayed almost to the end. I knew we had to get Maggie home, but to be honest, I thought we were leaving during the last song anyway. The next day I found out through a Wilco message board that they played three songs after we left. I couldn’t leave and I bribed Maggie, if she behaved, she could pick where we ate out that week. She did good. Probably didn’t really enjoy it. And if she did, she wouldn’t admit it.

The thing that made me sad was that these guys are musicians and songwriters at the top of their craft. Yet they were playing to a crowd of probably less than 2000. My daughter wants to go see Hannah Montana. She has sold out the Scotttrade Center (seating 20,000). They are scalping tickets at $200. There is no justice in the world. You can thank Adam for introducing sin into the world and hence, injustice.

The show was over 2 hours and they played 25 songs, true greatness.