One of the random thrills that I have received in my modest second career as an author was receiving an unexpected box of books one day. I had not ordered any books that week (a rarity) nor was I expecting any shipments from my publisher. I opened the box and found six copies of a book written in some mystifying Asian language. Thinking this must be some mistake I looked more closely and recognized my name on a blurb on the back. My first book, When Bad Christians Happen to Good People, had been translated into Korean and the new title was “The Bad Christian”. I had no idea that the rights to my book had been secured and was now being sold in Korea. I was now a bilingual writer even though the only Korean words I could remember were both foods…kimchi and bulgogi. I don’t know how the book has sold there. I don’t know how the average Korean relates to my odd
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I have not been able to write about the tragedy at Virginia Tech. Perhaps with a son at college it just hits too close to home. But this earlier artlcle does address one aspect of this tragedy. God does bless the broken road. I have seen it firsthand for almost forty years. Blessings and hope, Dave 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. So with without further ado the selection today is… Bless the
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Regular readers of these humble ramblings remember a daring effort called the iPod devotional series. It was daring because I would hit the random shuffle feature and write about whatever song came up in the sequence. Because of my weird music tastes the concept was fraught with potential peril. My marginal integrity was challenged when a song by Toby Keith appeared on the screen but I gave it a shot. Other events and ADD diverted me from the series but I have decided to return with one difference. I am picking the song at least part of the time. Today is author’s choice and the song is called Watching You by country singer Rodney Atkins. The song is reminiscent of a very poignant song by the late Harry Chapin called Cat’s in the Cradle. That song piled guilt on a lot of Dad’s in the 80’s, myself included. Atkin’s song recalls his shock when his little boy drops a mild expletive after
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Yesterday I posted a rather fanciful look at how “man’s best friend” could teach Christians a lot about evangelism. I was heartened and bit surprised at the level of response to that article (Canine School of Evangelism). Apparently there are a lot of dog lovers embedded into the Evangelical community and that gives me hope for the church! The star of the most recent post featured our rescued lab/mix Hannah. This is not a posed photo. At any given time Hannah will come waltzing up with the three tennis balls in her big mouth and download them one by one onto your lap to play catch. But the star canine of my two books was the late, great Charlie. Our beloved Golden Retriever died a couple of years ago at the ripe old canine age of 14. This excerpt from “Bring’em Back Alive” documents an experience I had with our senior dog citizen Charlie. It was one more example of the spiritual lessons we can learn from our faithful canine friends
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There are few things more pathetic than a middle-aged Dad trying to be hip. I usually do it to fulfill my contractual obligation to embarrass my sons. But I could not resist the title for this piece. For those not as hip as me (both of you), “dog” is used to address a good friend of the human variety. However, this article features the old school usage for dog…as in canine. A flurry of studies have crossed my path recently about the benefits of owning a dog. Writer Elizabeth Scott from about.com compiled some recent studies about the benefits of having a dog around. Here are some highlights. Pets Control Blood Pressure Better Than Drugs: Yes, it’s true. While ACE inhibiting drugs can generally reduce blood pressure, they aren’t as effective on controlling spikes in blood pressure due to stress and tension. However, in a study, groups of hypertensive New York stockbrokers who got dogs were found to have lower blood pressure and heart rates than
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April 15th is not my favorite day of the year. Traditional tax day is never fun for a guy who is organizationally challenged. My idea of being prepared is having everything in one box. But I was heartened to find that April 15th is a great day for baseball fans.  Jackie Robinson made his major league debut at first base for the Brooklyn Dodgers on that date in 1947. It was a historic and significant day for baseball but maybe more so for our country. You can argue that the American civil rights movement was ignited when Robinson came to bat in Dodger Blue. The journey for Robinson was difficult at best and nearly impossible at worst.  Many Dodgers players, mostly Southerners led by Dixie Walker, threatened to walk if forced to play with a black player. That ended when Dodger management let them know in no uncertain terms that they could keep walking to the unemployment line. I often
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Immediate disclaimer to Internet hall monitors: This article is not meant to throw Al Gore under the bus. That would be an inappropriate use of carbon resources to fire up a nasty fume spitting bus just to make a point. The point of this piece is to examine one aspect of the story from a spiritual viewpoint. First, some background is in order. Al Gore has made an amazing personal comeback with his global warming documentary. I will not debate the claims of his film here. I did write about being green and evangelical in an earlier post. Instead I want to focus on a very inconvenient truth that all of us battle. We are natural born hypocrites. All of us. Gore outlined a list of sacrifices that we could all make to help the environment. Use a clothesline instead of the dryer. Drive a hybrid. Cut back on the thermostat and home energy consumption. But Al Gore’s personal lifestyle severely damaged his message. (Hint to Christian
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