Monthly Archives: March 2009

After a busy weekend, I was really dragging yesterday… but Sweet Anna took me to Amigo’s last night, then 24 and an early night (followed by an early morning) and two great chapels, I am back to near normal… but there is one more thing to whew about… (sorry this is a really diary-esqe post… but starting tomorrow, some heavy stuff to contemplate… keep checking…)

see, on Sat. princess irene (whose birthday it is today!) suggested i sign up for the u2 fan club to get prefered seating… but reading the FAQs, I wondered if I was wasting the money b/c I wasn’t sure to get in to the pre-selling early enough (pre-selling began at noon today for some people)… so, I was SO zonked yesterday, I just couldn’t wrap my brain around it… then a colleague who knows of my love of this social justice, prophetically voiced music, who’s spouse is a faculty member at TJ’s U offered me some of their allotment and then I thought of another friend on the faculty who gave me all of her allotment and now I am set! My tickets to the Oct 1 U2 concert in the ‘ville are in the works!

whew indeed… sorry for the diary-esque post, but I did warn you! Lazo, U2.com says a second show has been added for Zagreb! How awesome is that?!?!?!?!?

since I am posting… a thought that I had the other day and then developed that might be worth your contemplation… I wrote to a friend to let him know I would miss an important event; I wanted to prevent his wondering where I was so I said…

“I didn’t want you wondering aimlessly”

my friend replied to said email and asked about this statement, to which I replied…

“the prevention of wondering aimlessly is the task of the wise, for you see, to wonder without aim
is akin to nothingness… for true wonder must have a spark, thus there is an implied aim…

on the other hand, to wander aimlessly is to gain insight, for he who can wander aimlessly is the wise traveler who gains insight from what he passes on his journey…”

I am enjoying the responses on influential person/people…. As I have thought about this, we all can profit from the responses because it shows us that we affect people in everyday ways… scroll to the comments of the next post dawn…

I am SO pumped!!!! WordPress put up a widget yesterday that FINALLY allows us to integrate our Twitter into our blog!!!! NOW, even if I haven’t posted, you may find a new thought on my Twitter.

Who has been the most influential person in your life? and why?

Now, I think this needs some clarification. Such as, what do we mean by “in your life?” Does this mean a living human that you have or do interact with on a regular basis? What does regular mean? Could this be an author (or, um… preacher?). Should we consider the negative influences instead of just positive influences? Can there be more than one (‘cuz, if so, then the question would be ‘Who are the people who have been the most influential in your life?’)? Or should there be no rules at all? Yes, that’s it, no rules. Wait, lets be positive so no negatives, (I don’t want former students trashing me – not like they read my blog anyway). So, no negatives. But it can be an author or preacher… and there can be more than one… but not more than five… ‘cuz I think that means you didn’t think hard enough.

ANYWAY, I will publish all two comments from my three readers (I told you I watched the stats) whether there are one or more than one influences, just as long as you have thought about it and say why. Oh, one more thing, can the Christians who might participate not just say ‘Jesus.’ I mean, isn’t that obvious? Can you guys answer the question “Which 100% human(s) has/have been most influential in your life? please? thanks. Same goes for you Muslims, Jews and Buddhists, Hindus (well, you never know)…

I too will post my thoughts in the comments after I have really thought about it.

Thanks to Arden for the good idea. Sorry Joanna.

There it is, post 800. Wheeeeeew, I’m glad that’s done, that was really stressing me out, and the blog stats have looked like the Dow Jones Industrial Average with the lack of posting. Now, think and comment please. Thank You.

I really enjoyed the OT section of this book. It has been really eye opening as a secular guy (he is of Jewish stock, but a secular upbringing) wrestles with the law of, the faith in and the reality of God… I have learned some interesting things about the OT law and the writings surrounding it. It has been interesting to watch A. J. Jacobs journey… He has gone from calling it an idea and project to his describing himself as on a spiritual pilgrimage. I’ve just begun the NT part and so far, he is visiting Lynchburg and watching the 700 club so nothing new in wither of those places… He does ask an interesting question: Can one follow the moral teachings of Jesus without accepting Jesus? This is what he seeks the answer to first in his NT quest. An important question indeed. Lewis’ famous answer is, of course, no, but that requires one to trust the words of the Bible doesn’t it? Jacobs believes in the JEPD hypothesis (Laci, we will allow you to describe the JEPD theory in a comment for us), so I don’t know what he will do with Lewis or if he will even encounter Lewis’ work. We’ll see…

Huh… Jacobs encounters Lewis… they both use their initials, that would be an interesting thought process. Maybe he Twitters, I’ll look and, if he does, I’ll ask him… (yeah, like he will answer)

BTW this is post number 799! What should I do for post number 800????? 

(yes, I do watch how many posts I have posted, and yes, I do watch my statistics… sad, huh?)

in The Year of Living Biblically, a friend told the author that he could just read the Bible without it changing him… he is discovering that this is true… “thy word will not return void”

stop for a moment and think about the things that change us… 

how much is intentional?

how much just happens without our knowing it?

how arware of the change that is happening in us is of our planning?

read Romans 12:1-2

as I mentioned a week or so ago, I am reading The Year of Living Biblically and I really like it… it is funny and it is interesting to read the perspective of a secular, just Jewish NYer on living the laws of the Bible – – yes, he tried to keep the laws… and he has not yet given up… It is interesting to hear how these things affect his heart… struggling with his sin (though he would not call it that) and learning to pray… indeed, his intentionality about praying would put the vast majority of Evangelicals to shame… his desire to ‘get’ the sabbath and finally experience it while locked in a bathroom for four hours was a cool read – he was ready for four hours of quiet… would you be ready for four hours of quiet? no books, no i-pod, no magazines, no tv, no nothing… sabbath… I need a week of them…