Governor Palin

At the risk of being overly partisan, I am thrilled that Senator McCain picked Governor Sarah Palin as his running mate. I'm less than thrilled by McCain generally, but choosing a conservative mother of five (including one Down's child) who loves Jesus and has a record of accomplishment is a winner in my book. That she happens to be a woman who can counter the whole "elect us for history's sake" business coming from the other side of the aisle is just gravy.

Trusting God

I never fail to be amazed at my constant need to re-learn the importance of trusting God. But time after time, placing events that are beyond my control (and those that are!) in His hands proves to be the best plan. He seems to love coming through just as I'm about to give up hope, so that I recognize His intervention and give Him praise for it.

A prescient thought on Iran, Russia, China...

...and other assorted rogues in our world:

The timid civilized world has found nothing with which to oppose the onslaught of a sudden revival of barefaced barbarity, other than concessions and smiles.
-Aleksandr Solzenitsyn

One wonders if we in the West will develop other means of opposition. And if so, will we do so soon enough to prevent our own destruction?

35

I turned 35 yesterday. I can remember when that seemed old enough to have been around when the earth's crust was cooling, but now it feels like I'm only old enough to be a semi-responsible adult. The kids finger-painted some beautiful artwork for my office while Karen created a great photo-collage of pictures of us to hang on our walls and baked the most glorious from scratch German chocolate cake with homemade coconut pecan frosting I've ever tasted. It was a great day.

It's sobering to think that I'm at the half-way point of my journey toward my biblical "three score and ten" years. I pray that I will grow by leaps rather than baby steps, that God will use me much more rather than less, that I will be a better husband, father, and church leader than I have often been, that I will cross the finish line kicking it in with legs flying and chest thrust forward to break the tape rather than limping through the last laps.

Ruth

This week I'm getting back in the swing of things with preaching and teaching. I've had the past couple weeks off from teaching Sunday School (intern!) and since my intern has now become our candidate for Pastor of Student Ministries, he was preaching last Sunday. So this is the first week I've had to follow my custom of prepping both a Sunday School lesson and a sermon in about a month. This week we're doing the book of Ruth in Sunday School and I'm really looking forward to it.

One of the things I love about Ruth is that even though God is actually mentioned very little in the story, you can see His hands working "behind the scenes." Ruth just happens to have her circumstances work out so she winds up working for, then meeting, and then marrying her kinsman-redeemer Boaz. But really what I love about the story is that it's not so much about Ruth herself as it is about Naomi ("my pleasantness") returns to Israel calling herself Mara ("bitter") for all that has happened to her, but God blesses and cares for her anyway. God even gives her a son through Ruth, and places her in the lineage of David and Jesus the Messiah. What's amazing to me is how God is still faithful to care for his people even when they are struggling with trusting Him. A humbling reminder for me...

Intent vs. Result

One of the things that annoys me most about certain strands of political thought is the idea that one's intentions matter more than one's results, such that as long as one has "good intentions," endless amounts of public money must be devoted to perpetuating that policy even if it results in no improvement or is in fact counterproductive. A couple quick examples:

1. Public Education: The solution to every educational problem is always more federal money, even though private schools and even home schooling produces better results with usually far less resources. Is it just possible that ideas like performance based (rather than tenure based) teacher salaries, making public schools compete for students (rather than assigning them by geography, and setting achievement standards that must be met to move up a grade with no possibility of dropping out at without graduating would produce better outcomes?
2. Wind, Solar, and Bio-Energy: None of these technologies are economically feasible apart from government subsidy, and converting the nation to them would result in the despoliation of millions of acres for new wind and solar farms (not to mention massive land seizures via eminent domain) plus the land required for new transmission lines to carry the resulting power. But offshore drilling, nuclear power, and oil shale can't be tried, ever, lest St. Al and his buddies fail to feel good about themselves or lose money on the massive "carbon offset" business they started to make money through government regulation.
   
3. Sex Education: The teen pregnancy and STD infection rates have not decreased, despite massive amounts of money spent supposedly educating teens about the risks of pre-marital sexual activity. Yet we may not teach abstinence, or better yet, remove the topic from the school curriculum entirely as beyond the educational mission of the school. Why not? Because if we did, then our society might slip into a new Victorianism, I suppose (would that we were in serious danger of that!).