Today's Laugh

A set of jokes about grammar and punctuation. A sample is:

A comma splice walks into a bar,
it has a drink and then leaves.

Okay, so maybe they're hilarious to me only because of how I wield my red pen to proofread and edit. Nevertheless, check 'em out.

Apologetics

Always be ready to give a defense
to anyone who asks you for a reason
for the hope that is in you (1 Peter 3:15).

Some people say that this verse commands us to have scientific or historical evidence that we can trot out, proving the "reason" for our faith.

But science and historical evidence do not create faith. The reason for our faith is not "reason" (although neither is it unreasonable).

Isn't the Apostles Creed a primary example of the reason for our hope? "Why do you do a good job at work even though you don't get credit for it?" Or "Why do you forgive your neighbor when he's not even sorry for cheating on the property line?" Or "Why do you pray for the country's leaders?" Or even just "Why do you keep getting up on Sunday morning when you could sleep in and rest up?"

Because I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord, ....

That's why Christians do those weird things.

Double for Her Sins

She has received from the Lord's hand
double for all her sins. (Isaiah 40)


From Sunday's sermon,
"Double for her sins" means

twice as much mercy and grace
and salvation as you need.

Every Valley

Every valley shall be exalted,
and every mountain and hill made low (Isaiah 40).

"By the preaching of Law and Gospel, John the Forerunner leveled the high mountains of pride and self-righteousness and filled up the valleys of contrite humility and unworthiness with God's mercy."

(Stolen from Sunday's church bulletin)

That Calendar

Maggie connived me into watching an episode of Psych with her. (Bad Maggie! Naughty Maggie! Bad girl!) (Boy, it seems I have no power to resist that show.) To quasi-redeem the time, I hauled out the 2012 planning calendar and began to pencil in birthdays and tax payments and symposia and other reminders. Of course, to do this necessitated consultation with the 2011 planning calendar.

That was when we saw the eye doctor? But I thought it was just a couple of weeks ago.

The calendar says Nat & Sarah's wedding was back in July, but they just got married.

Look at all those doctor appointments for Maggie in January. How could that have been nearly a year ago? It was so recent.

The last time I went downtown for training at work was in March? It couldn't have been that long ago!





I'm getting old.


Will time keep going faster?
Or when we get old enough and feeble enough and frail enough, unable to fill our days with too-much-to-do, does the time slow down again, like when we were little kids and the days dragged?

Feast of St Nicholas

A few years ago I wrote about my favorite Santa story, where Santa punched out Arius.

Wonderful Shoes

Too many people had been asking me, "Aren't your feet cold?" Yes, wearing flip-flops in November did indeed make my feet cold. But I answered that I'd change to real shoes when the pain of the cold outweighed the pain of the different shoes, and that might be a while yet. I kept wishing for fat wool socks like I had with my Birkenstocks, but you can't do that with thongs.

Or can you? I decided to try googling "men's wool toe-socks" and was utterly shocked to find hits. Turns out that the popularity of Vibrams has resulted in the manufacture of Bigfoot toe socks, and not only toe socks, but wool ones! So I'm still bopping around in my flipflops, but without the bareness.

When it was time to leave for work on Saturday, I realized that I didn't have my car. Sure, there was another car to drive. But my work-shoes live in the car; I normally put them on in the parking lot at work, and I take them off before I drive home. I had to abide by dress code. So I went to Gary's closet and nabbed the Skechers I'd bought earlier this year but then handed-down to him. I got through the morning okay. But after 3 hours, I started noticing pain. It worsened all day Saturday, even after I'd slipped my feet back into my lovely, wonderful, beautiful, comfortable, pain-free Orthaheels. Gary reminded me that, when I'd worn the Skechers before, I used my inserts. But on Saturday I never thought of that.

Mom, I knew what you were talking about when you were in the hospital without your inserts and without your Birkenstocks. But boy, now I really know! I don't always wear my orthotics; sometimes I'm [gasp] barefoot when I let the cat outdoors in the middle of the night. Sometimes I'll even go as far as the laundry room with bare feet. But several hours in normal shoes ... it makes me immensely grateful for the doctors and technicians who make such wonderful shoes and inserts!

And Rachel and Katie (and Alia), wear supportive shoes now. Because it's gonna get you eventually. Better later than earlier.

Youth Group

So the kids and Pastor are reading & discussing A Little Book of Joy. They meet twice a month on Friday afternoons. This week, they finished their book discussion earlier than normal. So what to do then? They sang Advent hymns; everybody picked a favorite. This is youth group.

I love my church.