I love using music to spark my spiritual meditations. Regular readers of the humble ramblings know that I have a rather eclectic blend of music on the trusty iPod. Today a song from Matthew West called “Nothing Else” was one of those tunes. You might better know Matthew West from a song called “Next Thing You Know”. His CD called History is one of my favorites and today’s song is an honest reflection on the journey to find happiness. Here are some of the lyrics to Nothing Else. I tried money I got as much as I could and I went to the store And I bought it all But it wasn’t enough ’cause I wanted some more But my house was full So I bought a bigger house and filled it up And there I was with all that stuff And empty. Been there. Done that. Just took the t-shirt in a bag of other stuff to Goodwill. We have so much stuff at our house.
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We are blessed to have a little neighborhood park about a half-mile from Casa Burchett so dog friend Hannah and I headed there this morning. I have walked this park dozens and dozens of times over the years. But today something funny happened. There is an old joke for my sports inclined readers. I went to a fight today and a hockey game broke out. Today’s Bad Christian paraphrase is I went on a walk today and worship broke out. It started routinely enough. Hannah was busy checking new messages left along the path by other canine buddies. Apparently she had a lot of mail to catch up on. I was listening to the Grace Romans CD series with Bill Thrall in my ear. For some reason I began to notice what had been around me all along. The park has a play area for kids, an open area for soccer and Frisbee and dog running and a wooded area with some natural fields. I
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Winnie the Pooh character Tigger often departed by saying “TTFN” (Ta-Ta For Now). Today is a NTTW (No Time To Write) day for me. So I have gone back to the dusty electronic archives and pulled up a well received article full of grace and truth. Okay, to be honest it was published earlier and it is full of something. I hope to swing by the insight market and whip a fresh blog for next week. Blessings, Dave One of my favorite ancient characters is Diogenes of Sinope. Born in Turkey about 400 years before Christ, he was a student of Antisthenes (444-370 BC), who was himself a pupil of Socrates. His philosophy was “marked by an ostentatious contempt for ease, wealth, and the enjoyments of life.” Diogenes would have had a field day skewering the consumerism and materialism in modern day America. One of the things that I love about Diogenes is his moniker. The irascible philosopher was known as Diogenes the
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Much has been made recently about the Evangelical Manifesto. First of all, I really dislike the word manifesto. Perhaps because I immediately think of the Communist Manifesto when I hear the word. The Evangelical Manifesto seeks to clarify the definition and beliefs of evangelicals. There is much in the document that I welcome and endorse. I don’t agree with everything in the document. But I am pretty sure that no one agrees with everything I say. Including me. One central idea makes me shout AMEN loudly. That idea is that Evangelicals should be defined theologically and not politically, culturally or socially. Since I am not smart enough to produce a document as eloquent as the Evangelical Manifesto I have decided to issue my own smaller brain version. Without any adieu I present “The Bad Christian Mini-festo”. I am a follower of Jesus. I believe that there is one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. I believe the
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Last year I wrote an article about a “reality” TV show that was so far from reality that it couldn’t see it with the Hubble telescope. The show is called The Girls Next Door and it sleazes up the E! Network on a regular basis. The premise is to look inside life at the Playboy mansion. Another sign of the apocalypse is that this is the fourth season of this show. Three gorgeous young women vie for the affection of octogenarian Hugh Hefner while they all live under the same roof. Now that is reality! Hefner rates the girls and appoints one of the girls as “number one” like some weird parody of Dr.Evil. In fact, the Mike Myers character Dr.Evil makes this appropriate comment in the movie. “There’s nothing as pathetic as an aging hipster.” Last year The New York Post reported that the show might have a ratings gimmick planned. They hinted that Hefner might just marry “Number One”. Here is an excerpt from that Post story. “This is very secret, but the word is
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This will be the second Mother’s Day since my Mom died. This is a piece that I wrote right after her death. It is a story of incredible grace and redemption. I pray that it will encourage some of you. Blessings, Dave There is the sadness of loss that is tempered with the joy of seeing her relationship with the Lord Jesus in her final months. The last year of my Mom’s life caused me to think of Al Michael’s famous question from the 1980 Olympics. “Do you believe in miracles?” I do believe in miracles. I have seen one. I loved my Mom but our relationship was challenging. She was raised in a family where love was not expressed. She could be very negative and her comments had stung me over the years. I knew that she loved me fiercely but I will admit that I grieved for a more gracious expression of her love. My Mom could be really
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I am a big football fan. I often hear announcers describe a defense that gives up yardage but not points as a team that bends but doesn’t break. I think that is often an apt metaphor for our walk with Jesus. In the current season of my journey I have been sharing life with a lot of friends, family and readers who are dealing with a difficult and bumpy road. So I decided to revisit an earlier blog on the topic and add some recently gained insight. During my occasional iPod devotional series I wrote about a song called Bless the Broken Road by Rascal Flatts. Earlier I had written a very personal blog featuring a song by Rascal Flatts called Skin. Bless the Broken Road also became a hit for the group Selah. Here are some of the lyrics. I set out on a narrow way, many years ago Hoping I would find true love, along the broken road But I got lost a time or two, wiped my
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