Facebook is all the rage these days. I am sure that some of these young whippersnappers resent the invasion of the Baby Boomers to the social network scene. Deal with it. I am enjoying catching up with old and new friends. One of the things I love about Facebook are the status updates. Some people ponder really deep and thorny issues like this one from my friend Robin. Why PopTarts, why do you only come in non-resealable pkgs of 2? Shouldn’t I have the choice to eat just 1 Tart w/out sacrificing the freshness of others? That is just one example of the inequities of life that need to be addressed and only a few men like Robin have the courage to ask those tough questions. Shouldn’t a country that can put a MAN ON THE MOON be able to package PopTarts in freshness saving single packages? Why isn’t there outrage over this injustice? Some use the status updates for mundane reports about
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(Today is a beat down travel day. Please accept this iPod Devotional rerun compliments of the house.) Welcome to the experiment known as the iPod devotional series. Here is how it works. On the old iPod is a “shuffle songs” feature. You hit the button and the iPod randomly picks a song.  I am writing a blog about whatever song the device selects on that day from the 1,000 plus songs on my iPod. My music list will further confirm my status as a Christian who makes others feel superior. My music goes from Al Green to the Youngbloods. Beatles to U2. Old hymns to modern praise music. Toby Keith to Frank Sinatra. Oldies to the soundtrack from Monty Python’s Spamalot. This could be interesting. I mentioned in the introductory paragraph that you might find some Toby Keith on my iPod. The shuffle confirmed that today as a tune from the Oklahoma country singer was the first one called up. Earlier I had expressed some concerns about
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I noticed a link today on MSN that touted the Top 10 Most Useless Body Parts. They had me at “useless” so I had to check it out. I could have guessed some of the parts they perceived as useless. Parts like tonsils, adenoids and appendixes. Many argue that those parts are, in fact, useful. But clearly we can live without any or all of them. Some parts on the list were surprising and a bit odd. For example, I was not aware of my plica semilunaris. You may not know it, but you have a third eyelid. Pull open the two more noticeable eyelids and take a look — it’s located right in the corner by the tear duct. That explains why I want to take a nap every afternoon. It is tough to hold all three eyelids open after lunch. Also on the list are sinuses. My wife would agree that sinuses are useless except to produce patience and longsuffering. Doctors don’t
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It is ironic that today’s song is about how quickly time passes away. I am paying for my traffic sin by taking a six hour online defensive driving course. I am four hours into six hours that I will never get back. Time is an odd commodity. This course seems to be taking two weeks while my life has passed by in a blink. Today’s spin of the shuffle wheel pulled up a little tune from Willie Nelson. The song is titled “Funny How Time Slips Away” and it is one of his signature songs. I realize that Willie is, for some, an acquired taste. I do not endorse Willie’s recreational choices or his tax paying discipline. Although his IRS habits would qualify him for a Cabinet post now. But I digress. I do like his ability to make lyrics real. In this song he laments the loss of a love. Well hello there my it’s been a long long timeHow am I doin’ oh
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I have been doing this church thing for a lot of years. I have sung hundreds of songs over the four decades or so that I have been a follower of Jesus. Some songs have great meaning to me. Some lyrics moved me to deep worship of God. Some times I really meant what I was singing. Other times I was singing through the motions while thinking about lunch and when the kick off was going to happen. Gotta think that Satan loves the ADD brain. One song that has always made me uncomfortable came up on the iPod today. The song was put to music by the legendary George Beverly Shea in 1932. The words were a poem written by Mrs.Rhea Miller in 1922. Shea recalled the moment. At the age of twenty-three, I was living at home with my parents, continuing to work at Mutual Life Insurance and studying voice. Going to the piano one Sunday morning, I found
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The iPod shuffle today fell on one of my favorite Christian artists. Jeremy Casella writes amazing lyrics and is a talented singer as well. He has written a haunting and convicting song that draws from God’s warning to the church at Ephesus. I know your deeds, your hard work and your perseverance. I know that you cannot tolerate wicked men, that you have tested those who claim to be apostles but are not, and have found them false. You have persevered and have endured hardships for my name, and have not grown weary. Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. (Revelation 2, NIV) The Church at Ephesus sounds like the kind of church that I would want to join. Clearly they had accomplished deeds, worked hard, guarded truth and even suffered. Sounds like they would be speaking at conferences about their effectiveness. Yet God is displeased because they forgot to love Him in the process.
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The iPod Devotional series has been an off and on feature over the years from your humble rambler. The concept is simple. I power up the trusty iPod, hit play and then push the shuffle button. The iPod randomly goes to one of my 1500 plus songs and I then write a blog about that song. It is risky business since my playlist is a bit eclectic. Today I decided to fire up the series again and the shuffle feature landed on a song by bluegrass singer Rhonda Vincent. God has a sense of humor. The song is called “You Don’t Love God If You Don’t Love Your Neighbor” and the lyrics begin like this. There are many people who will say they’re Christians and they live like Christians on the Sabbath day But come Monday morning, til the coming Sunday They will fight their neighbor all along the way. {chorus} Oh you don’t love God, if you don’t love your
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