Travelling Options

I am the Great Northwest and I have some time to kill. I am in Richland, WA and I have an appointment at 5pm (7 hours to kill). I could drive an hour and a half back to the place I'm staying in Pendleton, Or and I can drive an hour north to Yakima where I've never been before. I think I'm heading to Yakima. Hopefully I'll have something to tell about.
Actually had a full service gas fill up last night. Wasn't optional. Felt kinda useless. Did clean my windshield though.

Problem Solved?

Jeff Suppan has been rather ordinary since leaving the Cardinals after the World Series year of 2006. Before tonight's game, he had 30 wins and 30 losses. But against his former team the Cardinals, he was 5-0. That puts him 5 games below .500 since leaving STL. The Cards have really struggled against their former teammate...until tonight. The Cardinals finally beat Suppan and the Brewers (who had won four straight this year against the 'Birds). Did the Cards solve two problems tonight? We'll see...

Game 4 or Game 1?

I have always thought that, in a seven game series, game four was the most important. The options going into game four are: down 3-0, facing a sweep, 2-1 with the trailing team wanting to get even or fall behind 3-1 (which is very hard to come back to win). So, to me, game four was always the most important.
Or is it...
I learned that in the NBA the team that wins game one wins the series 79% of the time. That makes things look good for the Lakers who benefited from the very athletic (but not very smart) Denver Nuggets collapse in game 1 and Orlando (who may have been one second from being up 3-0). There's a game 4 tonight in Orlando. To me, it is a must win by the Cavs or the "king" will have to wait at least another year for his coronation.

The Prescription

I was feeling horrible last weekend. It started on Saturday afternoon and lasted through Monday. I was suffering from the sweep of the Cardinals by the Milwaukee Brewers. I couldn't take it anymore, so I went to the doctor and he gave me a prescription. It was only one dose for three straight days. He prescribed a Cardinals sweep of the Chicago Cubs. It worked! I feel much better.

Field Trip

I went with my daughter's fourth grade class to the Missouri State Capitol in Jefferson City. I've never been, so I was looking forward to it. My daughter is kind of into history as well, so she liked it also.
We got to visit the state House chamber. Maggie got to sit in the seat of a state rep (coincidentally, it was our rep). The kids got to ask questions and even vote on a few issues. She really enjoyed that.
Next on the the Governor's mansion down the street (ehh...Maggie was bored by it as well).
Back to the Capitol for a scavenger hunt at the museum there (fun but rushed for time). Then a tour of the Capitol, which included the highlight for me. We visited the mural painted by Missouri artist Thomas Hart Benton, "A Social History of Missouri." I thoroughly enjoyed it. Our guide was a fount of information on the mural. It was quite controversial. he was commissioned and arranged to paint whatever he wanted. In the "History" he included settlers, slavery, politics, war, Huck and Jim, Jesse James and a panel on "Frankie and Johnnie." It was very powerful and made me proud that it was in our state capitol and that Benton was a Missourian. (I've seen some of his work on WWII at the State Historical Museum on the Mizzou campus).
Then it was on to the Supreme Court building for a brief visit to one of the original courtrooms. Kind of cool, quick tour through the library and out. Funny how kids are. The guide was talking about the various levels of the courts and began by talking about a hypothetical court case involving a car accident. She then took questions and the kids kept asking questions about the stupid hypothetical! (And she kept trying to answer the questions).
Good time spending the day with my daughter. Love to do it again without being on someone else's schedule.

Some Thoughts on Simply Christian (Part 1)

Wright begins his book by discussing an "echo" of Christianity that is latently in most everyone, that is the cry for justice and fairness. He uses, over and over, a British term for evening all things out in the end. It is "Putting the World to Rights."

Putting the World to Rights

We all know there’s something called justice, but we can’t quite get to it.

You don’t have to teach children about fairness and unfairness.

There are some things in our world, on our planet, which make us say, “That’s not right!” even when there’s nobody to blame. The earthquake wasn’t caused by…It just happened. And in that happening we see a world in pain, a world out of joint, a world where things occur which we seem powerless to make right.

We all know what we ought to do (give or take a few details); but we all manage, at least some of the time, not to do it.

How does it happen that, on the one hand, we all share not just a sense that there is such a thing as justice, but a passion for it, a deep longing that things should be put to rights, a sense of "out of jointness" that goes on nagging and gnawing and sometimes screaming at us – and yet, on the other hand, after millennia of human struggle and searching and love and longing and hatred and hope and fussing and philosophizing, we still can’t seem to get much closer to it than people did in the most ancient societies we can discover.

Wright then goes on to discuss the Christian's role in working for justice:

It is important to see, and to say, that those who follow Jesus are committed, as he taught us to pray, to God’s will being done “on earth as it is in heaven.” And that means that God’s passion for justice must become ours, too.

Thus, just as there is an echo of a sense that things are not right and need to be corrected, the Christian response is to work with the power of God's Spirit, to actively be involved in bringing God's kingdom (and sense of justice) to our world here and now.

Feedback Anyone?

We just concluded our semester long study of the gospel at Mizzou. I really enjoyed doing the work and working through the various passages. I often hear people discussing the gospel as if it is this simple little concept that we all assume we know. I wanted to look at the various nuances to the concept that were not often associated with the concept of the gospel.
I'd love your feedback. Let me know if you stopped by and read one or several of the posts. If you did, were they helpful or confusing. What would you add? What would you subtract? Did you use any of them to help with a Bible study or message? I would appreciate any comments you may have. If you have any interest in the series, just type "gospel" in to the box where you can search this blog.