John Ashcroft Resigns

I’m sure you all knew that, didn’t you?

This man has had some pretty nasty things said about him, some of which, for all I know, may be true. It’s interesting, though, to read his letter of resignation, and see the insight it gives into the Bush administration.

Despite the appearance of being secretive and stonewalling, the air I get from the people who are actually involved (as opposed to bitter journalists) is not one of conspiracy, but of respect. I have not heard one person speak, who worked directly with the president, who did not give him the utmost of honor, far exceeding what is nominally due the head of the US government.

Ashcroft’s letter is no exception. It is clearly not a forced resignation. I thought it was especially thoughtful that he wrote the letter by hand *so that* there wouldn’t be any leak. Secretive? Yes. But not for the sake of being secretive, but for the sake of a smooth transition. Ashcroft’s resignation was coordinated with the announcement of his replacement.

Of course, for certain parties, the new guy is worse than the old, minority status or othewise. But for all the whining, he seems like a good man. And if Ashcroft’s horrid countenance produced the statistics cited in his letter, may the terrible visage of Alberto Gonzales bring more of the same.

Ouch

Went to the dentist today. That’s not what the ouch is about. It’s been 10 years. **That’s** what the ouch is about. I’d been putting it off until I had money, or barring that, insurance. Well, I don’t got money, but I got this here dental card when I started working full-time. I figured it was time for a visit. The co-pays are going up in January, so I’m trying to get my visits in ahead.

The news is bad, but not so bad as it might have been. Continue reading “Ouch”

Revival

Our devotions speaker spoke on revival this morning–a subject dear to my heart. One of the things he did was to read some articles on the Welsh revival (1904-05) and a similar one I had never heard of in Korea (around 1907).

The Welsh revival is one of my favorite stories, just because of the dramatic change that occurred there in such a short time. In 2 months, over 70,000 people were converted. Factories shut down and major sports events were cancelled so people could attend church services until 2:00 in the morning. The horses in the coal mines had to be retrained because they didn’t understand commands sans cursing.

One of my (many) dreams is to write historical novels that tackle these kinds of revivals. I’d like to write an epic centering around John Alexander Dowie. For the Welsh revival, a teen romance might be a more gripping story, since 90% of the leaders of the revival were under the age of 22. Probably some kind of long-term saga would be best to cover the Pentecostal movements that swept through the United States around that same time.

The thing that always frustrates me about these things, though, is how little time they last. Continue reading “Revival”

One Down,

3 to go.

Finished my first exam. I’ve got a final and two 10-page papers left. I think I did pretty good: somewhere between an 85 and a 95, I’d say. In the long essay section, I wrote a real zinger of an essay, followed by a ho-hum attempt, so we’ll see where “acceptable” hangs out.

Bad Blogger

No. I don’t mean this service. I mean me. I’m not too good with the blogging technique. Either I drown you with a book, or I don’t say nuthin at all. Life’s been busy for me, so I ha’n’t said anything at all.

My excuse? I have a mid-term tonight. I think I’m going to do pretty good, but it’s a bit unnerving, since I haven’t taken any tests for a year, and the last one I took, I bombed. (40 hours really is the max while part-timing it as a student.)

I keep running across things every day that I could blog about, but I usually get it out of my system by talking, and then there’s an end to that. For instance, my sister had her stepson semi-kidnapped last Friday. He’s back now. Everybody’s “happy.”

Other news: be sure and check out the Jolly Blogger (not to be confused with Jolly Roger, like I did for months). He’s about to convert us all to classic Presbyterianism by sheer grace and reasonableness. (Trans.: read him. He’s got some really good stuff to say.)

For myself, I will try to be a better blogger as I can. We should be switching over to the new site some time in January. All we’re waiting on is for Valerie to finish the banner at the top (It’s a beautiful picture–just not web ready yet.)

Blessings!

Thought to Ponder

This is from my Chambers daily.

Faith in antagonism to common sense is fanaticism, and common sense in antagonism to faith is rationalism. The life of faith brings the tow into a right relationship. Common sense is not faith, and faith is not common sense; they stand in the relation of natural and spiritual; of impulse and inspiration. Nothing Jesus ever said is common sense, it is revelation sense, and it reaches the shores where common sense fails. Faith must be tried before the reality of faith is actual….For every detail of the commonsense life, there is a revelation fact of God where we can prove in practical experience what we believe God to be. Faith is a tremendously active principle that always puts Jesus Christ first….God brings us into circumstances in order to educate our faith, because the nature of faith is to make its object real. Until we know Jesus, God is a mere abstraction, we cannot have faith in Him; but immediately we hear Jesus say, “he that has seen Me has seen the father,” we have something that is real, and faith is boundless.

Thought to Ponder

This one has been simmering in my head for a bit so I thought I’d go ahead and share it. A while back in one of my daily readings Jean Fleming wrote that she “views [her] life as a tree. The trunk represents [her] relationship to Christ; the limbs represent areas of God-given responsibilities such as family, job, ministry, and personal development; and the branches represent the activities and opportunities of life.” She goes on the talk about how the activities can multiply to a point where they are more prominent than the trunk. It kind of reminded me of a hedge bush. Even when the bush is trimmed back the leaves are still more prominent than the trunk of the bush. Have you ever seen an old willow oak (or any old oak would probably do…I just prefer willow oaks because they have more leaves)? There is a willow oak in the front yard of my parents’ house and several here at the school. No matter how big, leafy or branched they get my first impression has primarily been “whoa that’s a huge trunk!” Activities and responsibilities are not bad things, we all have special talents that need to be used, but when they dwarf the trunk (i.e. your relationship with Christ), something is terribly wrong.

Here’s another thought for you. A couple of months back I had a snippet of a dream where I saw these huge trees with the centers burned away so there was a hole in the middle of the trunk and all the limbs, branches and twigs. Now if you know anything about botany or woody plants in general, you know that the xylem, which is made up of dead plant cells (and was the part that was burned away), normally carries water to the tops of the plants and gives structural support, and the phloem (the outer ring of the tree just below the bark) is where the nutrients are exchanged between the roots and the trees (i.e. the part that’s actually alive).

I was a little puzzled at first about these trees. If the centers were burned away, then how does the tree stand up and how does the water get to the branches. And then I realized, God doesn’t need or want a dead, imposed structure to give support or to direct water flow to his people. All He needs is an empty vessel so that he can fill it and make it prosper. Don’t try to impose your view of how you think God wants to fill your life and what things that he wants you to do; you’ll stunt your growth because you aren’t depending on Him for life giving water.

“He is the vine and we are the branches….” Well you know what? He’s also the Giver of Life and our Source of Strength. But even more than that, God wants to be in every part of our lives (down to the tiniest twigs), refreshing us and helping form new leaves that will edify the whole forest.