Be Kind to Your Teller

Sometimes clerks make mistakes. They may give you 15 cents too much change, or a penny too little. If the customer is shorted, he may think it's no big deal if he ends up with 20 cents too little. "Ah, why bother fussing over that?" He may think that he doesn't want to look like a cheapskate by complaining about getting $4.91 in change instead of $4.92.

But from the teller's perspective, she'd a lot rather have you point out the mistake so that she can keep her drawer in balance. Yup. (Guess who had a customer leave too quickly today?)

Bowing Down

Remember Joseph's dreams about how his family would bow down to him? It ticked off his brothers, and they decided to get rid of him. But, sure enough, the day eventually arrived when they were bowing down to Pharaoh's second-in-command.

About 17 years later, Jacob is blessing his sons before his death. He says to Judah, "Your father's children shall bow down before you" (Genesis 49:8). Wait, wasn't that the same prophecy as had been made about Joseph?




At the name of Jesus
every knee shall bow,
in heaven,
and on the earth,
and under the earth,
and every tongue confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord
to the glory of God the Father.

Lutheran Memorial Chapel

A video about a friend's congregation and theology. Mom, I thought you might like to see Ken. Our godson Mark is the second person seen after the organist talks about working with the other instrumentalists.

When Isaac Died

In our Bible story today (Genesis 46), Jacob traveled to Egypt and met the pharaoh. He said he was pretty young -- only 130 -- not nearly as old as his forefathers lived to be. This is probably tremendously unimportant, but I got to wondering about the math.

Isaac's twins were born when he was 60. He lived to be 180. That means Jacob was 120 when his dad died. That means Isaac died 10 years before the children of Israel went to live in Goshen. Since Simeon spent two years in jail before Jacob allowed the fellows to return to Egypt with Benjamin, and since there were seven years of plenty before the famine, and since Joseph spent two years in prison prior to the butler remembering about his ability to tell dreams, that means Isaac died sometime after Joseph had interpreted the dreams for the butler and the baker.

That means Isaac was still alive when Joseph disappeared and while impenitence was reigning in the brothers' hearts. (I never noticed that before because the sequence of the stories is not chronological: the Bible wraps up Isaac's life-story before delving into Joseph's.)

Free at Last!

The book is in the mail to the publisher!

Saturday morning, before heading off to work, I finished all my proofreading and editing. I couldn't believe how buoyant and free I felt. Saturday afternoon I did a lot of goofing off: chatting with online friends, paying bills, reading email, doing laundry, writing emails, and making a small dent in the long-neglected cleaning. Invigorating!

Funny how the mundane chores of life can be so refreshing and satisfying after focusing on something else for so long. As of breakfast time on Saturday, I was no longer car shopping, my kid was finally healthy, and the book (which had been hanging over our heads for four years) was no longer anything I was responsible to work on. I keep having this feeling that pretty soon something is going to explode into sucking all our attention, but for the moment, I am on a hiatus of house work and grocery shopping, with plans to get back to some "real schoolwork" right quick. And I'm loving it.

Filthy Lucre

You know it's been a slow day on the teller line when you wash your hands at lunch break and the water isn't black.