Friday, May 20, 2011

Amazing catch

Now this is an amazing catch.



June 28, 2011 Update: So, my brother-in-law just informed me this was a hoax. According to Snopes, the whole thing was staged. That’s too bad. I guess you can’t trust anything online anymore – even a video! I feel a little betrayed. A video goes viral because of an absolutely amazing catch and the near concussion of a reporter. But in reality, the whole thing is manufactured and digitized. If we had known this all along, I guarantee the video wouldn’t have been such a hit. What’s the point? I don’t get it. At this moment, it makes me NOT want to buy Gillette! Sigh.

Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Mommies are warriors

I watched my wife lay on that hospital bed with her face pale and sweaty. Her body was still cramping and bleeding from complications after delivering our third child. “Please bring me the baby,” she said. “I need to feed her.” I shook my head in amazement and said to the nurse, “Mommies are warriors.”

Thankfully, my wife is doing better now, but I’m learning to appreciate the heroic role of mom. According to Salary.com, if you added up the total value of a mother’s work ranging from chef to housekeeper, day care provider to van driver, moms would earn a salary of $117,000. Guess I shouldn’t complain when my wife wants to go out to eat once in a while. She’s earned it!

Moms have one of the hardest jobs in the world. But their duties go well beyond feeding, grooming, and shuttling the family. They’ve also been entrusted by God with spiritual training. The Apostle Paul writes to a young pastor named Timothy, “I clearly recall your sincere faith that first lived in your grandmother Lois, then in your mother Eunice, and that I am convinced is in you also” (2 Timothy 1:5). Timothy’s faith and spiritual formation were directly tied to the loving training of his mom and grandma. This is not to undermine the central role a father must play as spiritual leader in the home. But let’s pause and tip our hats to mom.

Mothers, don’t grow weary in doing well. You’re changing the world by raising up a new generation of teachers, soldiers, artists, inventors, pastors, and missionaries. Grandparents, keep praying for your family, cheering them on, and reminding them that God is always faithful. And Fathers, take time this Mother’s Day to sincerely thank that heroic woman who raised you, and the one who is now helping you raise the kids. Let them know just how special they are.

President Teddy Roosevelt said in 1905, “The woman’s task is not easy—no task worth doing is easy—but in doing it, and when she has done it, there shall come to her the highest and holiest joy known to mankind; and having done it, she shall have the reward prophesied in Scripture; for her husband and her children, yes, and all people who realize that her work lies at the foundation of all national happiness and greatness, shall rise up and call her blessed.”

Over 100 years later, those words still ring true. Happy Mother’s Day!

This article appeared in today's edition of our local newspaper, the Hi Desert Star.


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Monday, May 2, 2011

Augustine and the death of Bin Laden

If ever there was a "just war," our nation's pursuit of Osama Bin Laden would qualify. Here are Augustine's comments on the necessity and limits of waging a "just war"...
For it is the wrongdoing of the opposing party [Al Qaeda] which compels the wise man [Coalition Forces] to wage just wars; and this wrong-doing, even though it gave rise to no war, would still be matter of grief to man because it is man’s wrong-doing.

Let every one, then, who thinks with pain on all these great evils, so horrible, so ruthless, acknowledge that this is misery. And if any one either endures or thinks of them without mental pain, this is a more miserable plight still, for he thinks himself happy because he has lost human feeling...

...For even they who make war desire nothing but victory,—desire, that is to say, to attain to peace with glory. For what else is victory than the conquest of those who resist us? and when this is done there is peace. It is therefore with the desire for peace that wars are waged... (Augustine, "City of God," quoted from Philip Schaff, The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers Vol. II, 407).

I think it's appropriate to feel a mix of sorrow and gladness today as we reflect on the death of Osama bin Laden. On the one hand, we grieve the thought of anyone facing the prospect of eternity in hell, apart from Christ. On the other hand, when a battle was provoked by wrongdoing, and weapons were reluctantly taken up by the innocent nation, we should rejoice at the sight of justice and a little more peace in our world today.

New Blog

Today I'm closing up shop and launching a new blog called Pinch of Clay. You can visit it by clicking here . Please stop by and...