Break time!
I've been working on a vexing problem at work - it's just slow progress... and I just couldn't think anymore. So, it was time for a walk. I went into the small office park where there was a bunch of flowers and found a huge butterfly - well, it had about a seven inch wing span. It kind of looked like this one:

But it had blue near the back end of its wings. (Mental note: remember to carry a camera more often...) Very cool - good way to get your mind back.
4:36:25 PM  #     comment []  trackback []

The Motley Fool: Living Below Your Means
Hmm - practical advice, but it doesn't always apply.

Here's an example of an exception to the living below your means. Toute Sweet - our Birman cat who was operated on, growth removed, tested and found to have been cancer. The practical advice was to just have her put down - it's the only financial decision that makes any sense.

The problem here is that given the perspective that we had at the time, the only thing we had any knowledge of at all was that she was having troubles with digestion (she was loosing weight and tossed her cookies really hard a few times).

When would the pratical advice made any sense at all? Couldn't have been at the start of all of this - that resulted in a weekend stay at the vets. How about after the second stay started? We did have a choice halfway through that stay to decide about the exploratory surgury. But we still hadn't figured out what was really going on. What about after we finally got the test results? By this time, we've already commited a lot to saving this Birman member of our family. No going back and changing now.

At Congress 2003 a different speaker, Joseph Garlington said that we make emotional decisions and that we then rationalize them. He spoke at length about the scene where Mary worshiped Jesus at the last supper by annointing Him with an expensive perfume - very expressive worship that everyone knows about. How did she decide to do it - it had to have been an emotional decision.

I know our decisions about Toute have been very emotional. She's a great cat. We're doing all we can for her. I don't like tube feeding her, but we need to do it until she eats on her own. So, we do it day after day. When do we give up? Once we can see that the cancer has decreased her quality of life and she will tell us when it is time to go home. Yes - I believe that we'll see her in heaven. She has picked up characteristics of us and I find it hard to believe that she wouldn't be there - and I agree that there isn't any scripture to support my position.

Practical advise doesn't always work. Life just isn't that easy.
4:18:39 PM  #     comment []  trackback []

Christian Artists I listen to
I listen to contemporary Christian music while I drive to/from work. My music is bundled up in a 5Gb iPod that I received from my wonderful wife. I happen to use an iBook and iTunes to handle my local collection of songs, which is about 800 songs. My iPod has been dropped a few times, so it has a few bad blocks and can get stuck if I fill up its disk all of the way. Cool toy for sure.

Which Christian artists have I been listening to? Amy Grant, Beth Anne Russo, Caedmon's Call, Jim Cole, David Phelps, Don Francisco, James J. Romeo, John Tesh, Julie Joyner, Keith Green, Lauren Talley, Lynda Randle, Michael Card, Michael W Smith, Nichole Nordeman, Ray Boltz, Rich Mullins, Sara Groves, Steve Green, Steven Curtis Chapman, Talley Trio, Wendy Francisco and Wynonna Rider (Testify to Love).
11:16:47 AM  #     comment []  trackback []

Never enough time...
I've noticed lately that I'm always just running out of time. Not a good thing at all. Time is our one non-renewable resource. Never enough time to stop, think, write stuff down, do the things we really want to or even do the things we've been avoiding.

This morning I was listening to Kay Warren from Congress 2002. She reminded me of something really important. Forgiveness. We've all been forgiven, but we have troubles forgiving other. There are lots of good excuses and many ways to avoid it. But, if we're really Christian, then we've been forgiven a debt that we could never have paid. We didn't deserve it, but God gave us a gift. We each have people in our lives that we just don't want to forgive for lots of reasons. We also just don't believe that they deserve it. It's hard to just forgive. Fortunately, we can let the Lord lead us and just take it to the cross again and again until we can finally let go.

There are folks I haven't forgiven yet, but I'm trying more everyday to forgive. I need to forgive them. It's not easy though. Lord - I pray to have the courage and the strength to forgive someone today. Someone who I just don't want to forgive, but I have to let it go to you Lord. Help with with this today Lord.
10:47:03 AM  #     comment []  trackback []