Gotta Love Piper

Sound the trumpets, release the doves, it is here . . . A NEW POST!!!

I've been doing ALOT of reading lately, and it has been fantastic.  A mix of things, all incredibly enlightening on God and life and the world around us.  Bible, Desiring God by John Piper, Systematic Theology, Easy Chairs Hard Words, Knowledge of the Holy, Pursuit of God, The Great Gatsby, On the Road by Jack Kerouac, Lord of the Flies.  There is obviously a distinction between the first six and the last three, but it's amazing what you can learn from fiction books as they reveal the way alot of the world thinks and works and is.  

The first six you study, re read parts (or entire chapters).  The last three you read for a bit of relaxation, maybe before falling asleep (or to put you to sleep!)  However, I think reading both should be approached with prayer.  I don't think anyone will disagree you should pray for guidance with the first six, but prayer before reading Lord of the Flies is probably a bit more foreign.  However, if any truth about God or the world He created can only be truly learned and understood by His providence and through the Holy Spirit, then prayer should naturally be a part of everything we do (eating, sleeping, reading, let it all be to the glory of God.)

Anyways, I've got lots of other thoughts from things I've read, conversations I've had, etc. to throw up here over the next few days, so be watching!  Oh, and any hyperlink above is a book I would highly recommend reading as soon as you get the chance.

Last note, Desiring God is having a sale on all Piper's books today and tomorrow, everything $5.  I haven't been able to place my order yet today, the checkout system seems to be a bit overloaded, but give it a shot, there's plenty of worthwhile stuff on there.

P.S. - I absolutely LOVE me some fireworks!!!  just fyi . . . 

Believe

During the drive home tonight, I was listening to "Believe" by Yellowcard. Probably one of my favorite songs because every time I listen to it certain parts just flat out give me goosebumps. I don't know the specific inspiration for writing it, besides it being in tribute to 9/11; nor do I know exactly what the writer's intentions were with every line, etc., in terms of what he means or is trying to say. I do however know what it makes me think of. Let's start with the song lyrics:

Think about the love inside the strength of heart
Think about the heroes saving life in the dark
Climbing higher through the fire, time was running out
Never knowing you weren't going to be coming down alive
But you still came back for me
You were strong and you believed

Everything is gonna be alright
Everything is gonna be alright
Everything is gonna be alright
Be strong. Believe.
Be strong. Believe.

Think about the chance I never had to say
Thank you for giving up your life that day
Never fearing, only hearing voices calling out
Let it all go, the life that you know, just to bring me down alive
And you still came back for me
You were strong and you believed

I just can't help but picture what it would have been like to be one of the rescue workers sprinting in and out of the building to save lives. Literally everything else in life was of complete disregard, irrelevant to the job at hand. They were called to absolute and complete obedience. Never fearing, only hearing voices calling out. Let it all go, the life that you know, just to bring me down alive.

I think this kind of absolute single minded obedience is what Christ calls us to in a lot of ways. Literally nothing outside of Him and His will and glory has any value or bearing on life and what we are called to. We cannot serve two masters. It's either sin or God. Only then, when we stand in the full power of His grace, can we be strong and believe everything will be all right.

Economics 101

So, I was wandering around CNNMoney.com like I do every day, and came across this article about a new piece of legislation that has been introduced to Congress. There are a couple of things I like about this article.

1) While it may start out sounding like it is going to be a Obama bashing session, it's not. This lady simply acknowledges his involvement, and moves on to really examining the bill. Somewhat of a lost art in journalism anymore, it's much easier to just lash out.

2) It's a gender issue being written about by a person of the same sex, thus removing criticisms of "oh well he's just a biased pig headed man"

3) I LOVE when she calls out the title of the bill. Who isn't for fair pay?? Well, I think most of us are, but not if they have incorrectly identified, overexaggerated, and come up with a bad answer even given the faulty set of assumptions.

4) The author acknowledges both sides of the issues surrounding this legislation. She doesn't just lash back rebuking everything she can; rather, she admits places where there is some rationale, but stands by her conviction.

5) I know not everyone is an economic guru (education majors . . . haha). However, just because you don't thoroughly understand a topic, especially one that relates to politics and our everyday lives, doesn't mean it can't be critically understood. She breaks this whole thing down pretty simple, and obviously a complete and thorough researching of the subject would reveal some degree of bias in this piece, but that is inevitable. If you have about a 9th grade reading level and 10 minutes to read and think about this, then you can understand it.

6) If you haven't guessed it by now, I agree with most everything she has to say . . . that helps alot when evaluating how much you like an article.

That's all I have. Just doing my part to help the non business minded people of the world understand a little more, especially when it's related to the government's involvement in our free market economy. Oh, and lets not talk about unions, unless you really want to, I just don't have the energy for it, haha.

Non Serious Fridays

So, there is this place called the Mid Ohio Raceway. It's a road style course (aka not a NASCAR oval), and I LOVE IT. Last summer my Dad, brother and I went and spent a weekend watching races, a bunch of different classes of cars, etc. We get free tickets because his company GOJO partially sponsors a team of Porsche's that are SICK, so we get to go walk around in the pits and look at all the cars, etc. Just found out we are going again this summer, and I'm real excited for it. It's one of those things where going into it last year, I felt it would probably be enjoyable, but maybe not great . . . I was wrong. The only downside is for about a week or two after the race, I have trouble trusting myself driving because I just want to freakin haul through corners, go 100 miles an hour on back windy roads, and basically break every safety related traffic law we've got.

So, the racing is real tight. There is a class called the Daytona Prototypes . . . yeah, they are FAST. Those things hit a straight away, coming off a turn, and they accelerate like you wouldn't believe. THEN, when they come into a turn, they go in so fast that literally you think they have no choice but to detonate into a wall. Even better, they run at the same time as the open series featuring souped up mustangs, vets, bmw's, etc. Now those are some fast cars, but the daytona's whip around them like they aren't anything more than big wheels. That's why the picture is blurry, it's kinda hard to get a clear shot of a car doing 100 mph entering a turn . . .















Oh, P.S., it's still dangerous, just fyi. . .