Cultural Lingo vs. Technical Biblicality

In American evangelical culture, we tend to say some things differently than society at large. For instance, “PTL!!!!!!” (praise the Lord) commonly replaces “OMG!!!!!” online.  Lately there are some phrases that I’ve been called out on based on their anti-theistic tones. Here’s a couple:

“We’ll make it work.”

“Make it a great day.”

“Crossing my fingers.”

“Good luck.”

Good luck is certainly the most common one I’ve been chided for. Admittedly, a significant percentage of repudiations I’ve heard have been in the interest of sassiness at least in part, but even that displays the discomfiture many feel about it. Here’s the rub: why is it worth chiding for? 

Think about the phrases above. Each either suggests a randomness to human experience, an individuals’ sovereignty in his own life, or both. Both of those concepts  are thoroughly rejected by the Scriptures. The latter two phrases have roots in very old pagan superstitions. And so, last week a young man responded to my “good luck with that” by saying gruffly, “I don’t believe in luck, only in the power of God.” To be honest, I was somewhat offended, which is neither here nor there, except that it got me thinking about whether we’re wrong to use such anti-doctrinal flippancies. 

Personally, I can’t see not using many of these common expressions. We still live in this culture, and must communicate with it. As it stands, saying “may the Power of God make things go well in your endeavor” (or any less-akward version you like) will not communicate what you mean it to in a wider cultural context. “Good luck,” more than anything else, means “I care that what’s about to happen to you goes well.” Very few people actually think you are superstitiously bestowing luck on them. Yet the “Power of God” version is more likely to say “I really wanted to fit God into this conversation even though it says nothing about what I’m feeling.” 

You tell me, which is better?

Post-script:

This afternoon I was listening to [enter evangelical saying] (don’t judge) my club/dance Pandora station. Basshunter’s “I Can Walk On Water” came on (again, don’t judge) and I found it very encouraging. True to Basshunter’s style, the only words in the song are “I will never be afraid again / I will keep on fighting till the end / I can walk on water, I can fly / I will keep on fighting till I die.” Yes, this can be easily seen as a self-focused “I am god” type song and I’m pretty sure that’s what Jonas Altberg intended. Yet, personal encouragement is widely used in scripture, even by God himself. So, if I’m having trouble understanding why life is the way it is, I don’t see anything wrong with having a song influence my determination to keep on - even if it doesn’t mention that I can’t without God’s help.

Richness Via Chant

Night before last, SG introduced me to Gregorian Chant.  Not that I hadn’t listened to it before, but never to actually experience it.  We sat together, one sister helping another through a difficult time by just being, and allowing the music to enter our souls.  

I have never been so affected by music.  A different kind of world, worship, prayer and emotion touched my soul.  In this world, the pace was observant, sensorial and wondering.  Emotion responded unfettered, accepted, essential.  Worship followed by acknowledging the understanding of God gained by the new (or old) pace.  Prayer was deep; a warm blanket combined with a cool spring.  

Last evening, I put the music on again, and read through a prayer from The Valley of Vision.  “Read through” is a crass use of terminology, though, for “pray through” or “meditate on” are more appropriate.  I never understood meditation.  Whenever I tried, I basically ended up thinking so hard I stretched my intellect until it was by no means what we refer to as “meditative,” but rather stressful.  Yesterday was different: I experienced that prayer, meant it, believed it.  I chewed on it, digested it, not as a mental exercise, but as a joint function of heart and mind in the soul. 

Applying to my activities the world communicated by Gregorian Chant brought this about, and I want to keep experiencing God in this manner.  In fact, to live in this way appears a wonderful alternative to majority western culture.  Of course, intellect must apply, and sometimes primarily, but I would like to learn to walk passionately through life sensorially observant and simply contemplative.  It may be slower, but oh, how much richer!

Perhaps a former music major has run away with her thesaurus.  Perhaps a theology major has turned mystic.  

Perhaps the happy-faced intellectual understanding of God so prevalent amongst evangelicals truly misses out on rich stores of interaction with God.

Patriot Day Thoughts

It is September 11th, 2010. Here in Chicago, it's a very rainy, foggy, messy day.

9 years ago: we awoke to images on our televisions that we only expected to find in epic catastrophe movies like Volcano, or maybe from some far off place called Iran - or was it Iraq ("Isn't that the same place?", someone might comment). My younger siblings hardly remember it, since they were so young, and yet I wonder if they attach any more importance to it that do a lot of people my age, or even older. The graphic images certainly won't be forgotten fully, but are suppressed almost out of existence. "We will never forget" stickers used to be common place. Now, they are relegated to the rusting bumpers and dirty windows of the "red-neck" population - and those crazy, fundamentalist right-wing wackos called who drink to much tea.

I checked for any events going on here in the city as a remembrance of 9/11.  A few suburbs had moments of silence and such at fire stations.  There may well be something happening in the city today, but it certainly wasn't readily found via the internet.

Today:  Should we spend the day thinking about it, holding candle light vigils, rewatching the footage?  Honestly, we probably shouldn't.  But, should we expunge it all-together?  I think not.

Of course, I didn't do anything about it either, but next year is the 10th anniversary, and I intend to do something.  We need to pray for our country.  Pray for those who are leading it, and those who are trying to bring it to it's knees.  Pray for Muslim countries throughout the world that ultimately serve as breeding grounds for the organizations and ideologies that undergirded the attack on our soil.  If we do not pass the memory and its implications on to those who were too young to understand the geo-political, religious, and national importance, in another 10 years, if not much sooner, we will be right back where we were on September 10th, 2001.

There are a lot of Republican candidates to consider come the primary on August 10th, and it just so happens that all of them claim to be pro-life. Is there a difference? Personally, I believe there are many large and important differences between the various candidates, but more importantly, CRTL (Colorado Right To Life) has published some unfortunate findings as regards expoused Pro-Life positions. CRTL's Blog has a lengthy explaination that is very good - but, lengthy. So, below, I have condensed the info as much as possible, and kept it to the Republican Candidates in the Senate and Governor's races. If you want to read the rest of the candidates mentioned, feel free to read the original article. I hope this is helpful for you in making your decisions for the August 10th Primaries.

About CRTL

We do not assume any candidate is pro-life unless they've responded to our candidate survey, or we have some other reason to trust their positions are sincere. CRTL does not officially endorse candidates for any office, but we will let you know which ones are NOT pro-life, and try to offer guidance on the rest. Please, NEVER assume a candidate is pro-life because of their party affiliation!

U.S. Senate Race

Republican Ken Buck is a credible candidate we consider very strongly pro-life and pro-Personhood, based on conversations with him. He is on record supporting Personhood, though we have not received his candidate questionnaire.

Republican Jane Norton has supported "abortion exceptions" in the past (i.e. for rape & incest, which is from our perspective "pro-abortion with exceptions"), and for some time refused to support Personhood. She was scheduled to meet with someone about Personhood, but the meeting hasn't happened yet despite every effort. However, she has apparently endorsed Personhood recently, along with the other Republican candidates for U.S. Senate. Questions to her campaign to confirm this went unanswered, and she has not responded to our survey, sent by certified letter, and she's had enough time to respond.

Again, we must question Jane Norton's sincerity on this issue, because she has seemed more reluctant than willing. She did participate in Gov. Owens' cutoff of Planned Parenthood from state funding, and we applaud her actions on that (as a cabinet member).

Governor's Race

Scott McInnis (R - Former Congressman) is the establishment candidate who the GOP thinks is "the man to beat Hickenlooper." He is running as a pro-life candidate, but is short on meaningful specifics. He was formerly a ranking member of the pro-abortion group Republicans for Choice, and is known to have supported some pro-abortion legislation (including taxpayer funding for abortions) and to have opposed some pro-life measures. He claims to have "changed his mind" about abortion, and has even expressed support for Personhood, but he has not responded to CRTL's survey (sent by certified letter 2 weeks ago, and also several times by e-mail), and we have real doubts about his sincerity. Don't believe his claims that he has a "pro-life voting record" -- HE DOES NOT. [...]

We were impressed when Dan Maes (R) became only the second major candidate to respond to our candidate survey. We had a question about his original survey, and in time and after some dialogue he responded with support for 7 of 7 of CRTL's central points, as explained in our candidate survey. We consider him 100% pro-life, and are happy that he is doing so well in the Governor's race -- no one gave him a chance early on, but he's turned out to be a strong and credible candidate.

[None of the emphasis above was added by me, but reflects the original article]

Thanks for your interest, and don't forget to vote on August 10th!

Out and About and En Route

Just wanted to let people know that I'll be out of town for a few weeks, and then my schedule is going to be slightly crazy after that. Don't want anyone thinking that I've up and disappeared!

As a little personal anecdote of some sort seems called for in a post this short, I'll have you know that I don't like packing. I especially don't like packing 'till 1am the day before I leave. Now how, you may ask, did this unfortunate circumstance come about?

Mom's birthday is right around the time I'll be getting back. I, of course, didn't realized that because we'll be celebrating it the day after I get back, I won't be able to do any cooking, shopping, etc. Fortunately, I did realize this, just not quite soon enough to be comfortable. So, various preparations have been sprinkled over the past few days, which I won't go in to, but the kicker really came today. Actually, the problem started Thursday, which was the day I had planned on packing, but it wasn't painful 'till today.

I had planned on spending maybe and hour and a half packing, maybe an hour helping Dad, Buddy and Birdie on some projects outside, and also spending the morning and lunchtime making Mom's birthday cake. NOT!! I chose a cake that is really beautiful, but was a lot more involved than it appeared in the picture - try 8 hours involved! (The cake is gorgeous, though - a 10" square two-layer chocolate cake with chocolate mocha frosting and 70 little pink drop flowers all over it)

Then, I left for Bible study... stayed later than expected... and you have my not so great time slot for packing. However, I hope to have a great time, and all this will be well worth it - and Mom really likes her cake, too :-).

Proclaiming His Greatness... From the Valley of Death?

Finally, we appear to be getting some honestly warm weather, and its beautiful! With all the rain we've had, the open fields behind us are turning green, and the Scrub Oak (our main tree besides pine) are being venturesome with a few green buds showing through - although I've decided that Aspen aren't very smart, since ours started pushing out little green leaves about a month ago.

Amidst the change in the weather and the almost continuous planning for the next few months, Psalm 23 came to mind in a rather strange way on Sunday. I read it over and over, and looked up some other Psalms that came to mind, and came away with a few interesting thoughts. Hope you find them as interesting as I did.

First, it occurred to me that the first three verses, which are so well known in Christendom, are immediately followed by "the valley of the shadow of death". Odd, isn't it? Good times, once they arrive, are just going to stay, aren't they? After all, if God is having us lie down in green pastures and leading us beside still waters, that means He is pleased with us and "will never forsake us"... to which we add, mentally, "meaning, nothing bad will happen". But, that is not what the Psalmist recounts. In verses four through five he discusses being under the shadow of death, and surrounded by his enemies. Here's the kicker (if I may use the term): This train of events is not represented as something unexpected, or even unfortunate. It is the way things are expected to go when God is leading and teaching you.

Second, another thing struck me about the order of the verses. If you look at the structure, verses one through three and verse six are the ones we would consider "good times". This is about the nice things that we think God should do for us now. Admittedly, they do bookend verses four and five, but even so, are they quite what today's American church usually represents? For one thing, take a second look at the first line of verse three: "He restores my soul." [insert fluffy, pink thoughts emanating from Sunday School posters] Think about it - that implies very clearly that the soul was damaged or worn out. Then, add the second half of the verse (a new sentence): "He leads me in paths of righteousness for his name's sake." This very well could imply that we had first left the path, if we were ever on it at all - and isn't that likely why our soul was in need of restoration in the first place? The picture isn't quite so fluffy anymore. Briefly, take a look at verse six. I love this verse, because it is so full of promise, but the second part of the verse is mainly promise for the future. The first part ("Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life...") is very interesting in that it comes directly off of the discussion about the valley and enemies.

This brings us to the most incredible part of the whole discussion (in my opinion). Clearly, verses one through three and six are proclamations of God's guidance, comfort and mercy. God provides great things there, but doesn't He also provide during the hard times? He causes the Psalmist to not fear, and provides him with sustenance when surrounded by his antagonists. In fact, verses four and five continue the same tone as the other four do - proclaiming the wonderful provisions of God! Two examples of difficulty, or two examples of God's help during the time we are least likely to see it? I believe the latter, and what a difference that makes!

Think of it: this introduces a different way of viewing all the difficulties of life. Instead of simply thanking God for the "good times" and asking Him to remove the "bad" ones, we must recognize and be, perhaps, doubly thankful for God's great gifts of mercy and grace - during those times we tend to see it least. We have all heard someone say that we should "thank God during the bad times". I've never fully understood that, but little by little, through this and other things, I think God is teaching it to me. God is providing, and even though I can't quite see it, I can at least picture what a mess things would be if He left me to myself. "A joyful heart is good medicine..." (Pr. 17:22), and thankfulness for God's greatness is certainly a big part of that.

"Spring" Cleaning

Well, its still feeling like Spring only off and on here, but according to the calendar, the season of flowers and new life is here. Now, my family has never done even an unofficial "Spring cleaning" - Mom is an incredible housekeeper, and if there was ever enough dirt in this house to warrant such a drastic measure, I think she would break down and cry. I however, am not an incredible housekeeper, even though my part of the house is only a very small bedroom. I consider it evidence of the creative that I am - others in the house consider it just a plain old mess, and sometimes a fire hazard. Either way, I have been in need of applying what organizational skills I have for a very long time. Enter the last few days...

It has occurred to me (rather unwillingly on my part) that I am leaving home in about 3 1/2 months. This has caused a number of things to happen (besides me freaking out), including a fairly extensive reorganization of my life. Shocking, I know! It has been way out of my comfort zone, but, being that type A, goal oriented person that I am, has also felt very good once I see that I'm accomplishing something. It also appears to have made the organized members of our family quite happy ;-).

First came my books. I love my books. My books are more important to me than my clothes - ok, that's not saying much coming from me, but you get the point. Our library has these shelves of books for about 50 cents that I have become almost addicted to, which means I literally had three stacks of books knee high on the floor of my room. My shelves (an entire seven foot bookcase) were a wreck, and it was time to purge and reorganize. Well, I made an Excel spreadsheet of all my books. The result was all of them organized by category and then author's last name all in one bookcase (except cookbooks) - I will admit, it is wonderful! Mom was extraordinarily happy that they were neat, Birdie's happy that she can find my fiction, and I'm happy that all my books look so happy on their shelves.

Then came the filing. I don't do filing. I do piling. Dad has been trying very hard to get me to stop that, because he used to and knows how important it is to not. His attempts didn't work, until it occurred to me that many of the random papers that were on almost every flat surface of my room need to go with me to school. [insert me having a 10 second freak session before surrendering myself to the inevitable] So, off to Office Depot we went, got two file boxes, returned home and I now have a filing system (that no one but me would understand, but hey, I'm the one that has to use it, right?) and a much cleaner room.

(Actually, the "off we went to Office Depot" wasn't quite so simple. First Dad and I went pawn shopping for a number of things, including a filing cabinet, and discovered you can't get a decent two-drawer for less than $90, which was out of our price range. Pawn shopping is one of the only experiences where you can be called both "babe" and "madam" by a sales clerk within an hour of each other, depending on which shop you're in... but I digress)

Anyhow, I am now off to clean out my clothes (many of which really need to be passed on to Birdie and SRM), desk drawers and CD's/Tapes. Yes, I mean cassette tapes, like the kind you listened too in the '80s and '90s - some of the best Christian rock ever recorded. I guess Spring cleaning - whether intended as such or not - isn't such a bad idea after all.

"Gotta be a record"

Well, 5 1/2 months is likely my record time for going without a post. Sorry world, or perhaps I should apologize for again adding to the world of the mostly useless blogosphere :-P. Either way, I'm sort of back, and will attempt to keep this thing updated a little more.

Let's see, I guess the biggest thing that's happened in the past few months is that I've been accepted into the music program at Moody Bible Institute! I've wanted to go to MBI since I was 6 (although my reasons have, let us say, matured) so I am very happy. I'll start there next fall, leaving here around mid-August.

Here, we're hoping that the snow has ended, although last week we got a very surprise 22 inches! It really did melt the next day, but still, that's a lot of snow for a "surprise". Did I just say we're hoping the snow has ended? Me? Yes, when it's almost May, and you get spring three days on, two days off, even I can admit it's time for winter to be over :-).

This particular week, I've got a bad case of hives, so you'll have to excuse me while I go find the benadryl...

Oh, and if you know what movie the title of this post came from, you get a cyber high five :-D

Thoughts on Life and Eternity

Has it occurred to anyone that life is really a very strange thing? I mean, we're technically eternal beings, and yet we can't really tell, or at least we don't act like it. We're locked into this finite material universe, in which there is a start and finish. Yet, that's not really what we are. In reality, we don't have a clue what we are really like, and won't until we're out of this universe, because we simply can't even fathom anything else...

And if we think it's weird for us, just imagine God, who is not only eternal, but created the universe we're locked into for the moment, deciding to subject himself to the same thing.

While we're here, we can't seem to keep an eternal perspective. Yet, in reality, our life on earth is simply a rabbit trail off the highway of existence. While we believe what God has said about our lives, Jesus' life, and the ultimate plan, we don't always, or even usually, live that way. Why?

Well, all I can say is that it must have to do with the fall, and yet, I wonder, did Eve really have an eternal perspective when she ate of the fruit? Or did she, but it was simply overridden by the temptations? In which case, she was little different from us, except that she was only able to sin in one way, where as we are sinners by nature. Well, it's an interesting discussion, but still, we have the same issue at hand: why?

Why put us into this material universe at all? Why cause this disconnect from eternity?

I can't answer, and I don't suppose it's something that truly can be answered, for the same reason we have to ask the question in the first place: we are finite.

Whether we can answer all the why's and why-not's, the entire topic is one that ought to be given much thought. People talk about living eternally and then apply it to things like, "don't focus on gathering wealth" and "go into ministry - it's the most important" et cetera. But, what about the truly every day? What about getting so caught up - in our schedules, relationship issues, plans for the week/month/year, church and even just the things that keep our life on earth going: shopping, cleaning, cooking, sleeping, eating - that we completely lose sight of REAL life. Real life - the life that goes on forever, that will either end in eternal agony or eternal joy, glory and fulfillment in complete fellowship and communion with God.

Forgetting is ever so easy... and ever so serious.

Discerning the Motive

This is great. Funny, yet oh, so true.

Keeping An Eye Out

In general, there's so many things going on it's hard to keep track of it all, but here's some highlights to remind us of what we're fighting for, how much we've done, and how important it is to keep going over the next three years:

First, here's some great footage of the 9/12 March on Washington. This is impressive stuff:



Also, yesterday, Gary Bauer quoted a speech made by Mike Pence about Joe Wilson. The entire speech was excellent, so here it is [courtesy of VA Social Conservative]:




Keep watching the ACORN Prostitution Scandal as well - if you hadn't heard, they've now released video's from Baltimore, MD, Washington D.C., New York, NY, San Bernadino, CA and now, their latest, San Diego, CA - every one more incriminating and unbelievable than the last. Be sure to go back to earlier posts on BigGovernment.com and see the earlier ones. It's well worth the time.

EOD Report - Interesting Joe Wilson Commentary

If you're not familiar with Gary Bauer's End of Day Report, go Here and sign up - it's good stuff. Today, EOD had some interesting comments about the Joe Wilson issue, and some especially interesting quotes from Mike Pence:

"Republicans Defend Wilson

Yesterday I urged Republicans in the House of Representatives to stand up and defend Joe Wilson (R-SC) when the vote to discipline him came to the floor. Wilson, not surprisingly, was reprimanded by a 240-to-179 party line vote. (Seven Republicans voted against Wilson, while 12 Democrats voted for him).

Rep. Mike Pence of Indiana, the current Republican House Conference Chairman and rising star in the GOP, was one of the strongest voices for sanity in the debate. Pence spoke on Wilson’s behalf on the House floor yesterday, telling his colleagues: “The American people want better. The American people want less politics and more jobs. They want Congress to set aside petty partisan politics and come together to take action to get this economy moving again.”

Rep. Pence also noted, “Ironically, because of Joe Wilson’s outburst, we have been engaged in nearly a week-long debate about what’s really in H.R. 3200. In fact, now the American people know there's nothing in the Democrat’s bill in the House that requires an individual to verify their identity or citizenship.”

He closed his statement by saying, “Last Wednesday was not a good day in the House, but today is worse. Today we see politics overwhelming the institution. The American people are tired. So let me say again … I urge my colleagues to vote ‘no’ on this resolution, put attention back on the work that the American people sent us here to perform, and that is to serve the interests of their families and the interests of this Nation with everything we’ve got. I’m with Joe; vote no.”

I want to share these comments because many of you have responded to this report frustrated with the Republicans in Congress for their perceived reluctance to stand up and fight back against the radical Left. The Republican leadership IS fighting back, despite facing a huge Democrat majority and Big Media that is marching in lockstep with the liberal agenda in Washington. I urge you to keep an eye on Mike Pence in the future."

Also, I should give VaSocialConservative a great deal of credit for suggesting I watch Mike Pence in the first place.

A Great, Simple Idea for Action

[I recieved this as it was passed around through a loop of Tea Party goers and other activists in my area - great idea!]

This great idea is being passed around the Tea Parties... In her own words:

"This is not a forward. I came up with this myself.. If you agree, please do it with me. I've written over 400 postcards, letters and emails already. You only need to do six. Thanks, Katy."

I believe that the majority of Americans are good, hard-working people. For too long we've been silent because we were going about our business raising our families and making the country work. Now everything that we've worked for all our lives as well as our inalienable rights guaranteed by God and inscribed in the Constitution are being stolen from us by the current Administration and Congress. It's time to DO something!

We are NOT an angry mob! We are NOT un-American! We just want the government to follow the U.S. Constitution. In our own way way we are doing what the Patriots in 1776 did, fighting to stop a tyrannical Government. I do NOT want anyone to be violent or ugly or disrespectful. What I AM asking is that you do a very simple, easy act that will have a great impact.Each of you buy six postcards and six postcard stamps (which are 28 cents). Send one to your U.S. Representative and to your two U.S. Senators. If you don't know their addresses (ours are printed in the daily paper) you can find them at:

http://www.house.gov/ for your Congressman and http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm for Senators

Even if your Representative and Senators do not support Obama's plans for our future, (ours don't, thankfully) they need to know that we are behind them to give them courage to stand up to the loud hateful voices that the Axis of Tyranny getting ready to unleash.

Also write the Axis of Tyranny Obama, Pelosi, and Reid. That uses up the six postcards. Their addresses are below:

President Barack Obama
1600 Pennsylvania Ave
Washington DC 20500

Speaker Nancy Pelosi
235 Cannon House Office Building
Washington DC 20515
S
enator Harry Reid
522 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington DC 20510

Keep it short and simple (a requirement on a post card) but don't delay! They will soon be back in session after Labor Day, so mail it between August 31 and September 4 so you can FLOOD THEIR OFFICES with a Tsunami of mail! Snail mail makes a huge impact on elected officials, but letters take too long since the anthrax scare in 2001. They go through a quarantine of several weeks. Postcards are faster and cheaper to mail, too!

God Bless America
Katy Jones
Kerrville, Texas

Keeping An Eye Out - Federal Friday

Hello everyone!

I know it's been a while, which is why I've got four items for you!

First, I've got a quick update on Secondhand Smoke, the bioethics blog I follow... It moved!! Here's the new address. If you've not read him before, I highly recommend it. The bioethics debate affects our basic rights so it is very, very important to be abreast of what is going on, scary though it may be.

Second: Whew, after something heavy like bioethics, you'll need something lighter. Here it is, one of my favorite Stoplight video's from the past month or so:



Hope you enjoy this!

Third: A lot of people probably got a chance to see this live, and more have likely seen this video, but I want to be sure everyone at least knows it exists. Glenn Beck interviewed Rush Limbaugh a few nights ago on Fox. It's a really great interview, available here - take a few minutes and watch it, or read the transcript if you prefer.

Forth: Last but not least, if you watch Glenn Beck's show on Fox News, you may have noticed the US Debt Clock. You may not have noticed that it's also a real website that anyone has access to. Anyhow, here it is, and I hope you take a look at it. I'll also be linking to it in my sidebar links.

Colorado is a wonderful place, and as summer is drawing to a close earlier than I'm used to from Virginia, I'm feeling that political spirit rise a bit early... hope you do too, there's a lot at stake this summer. Go to your town hall meetings, if you have any, get connected with some email loops from tea party or 9-12 groups, spend a few hours at some rallies, calling senators, et cetera and perhaps we can turn this country around!

(Oh, and to all of you in and around Virginia, there are early rumblings about the campaigns. Those are very important elections, so be sure to get involved there too.)

At the end of it all, God is in control of all this, so be sure to keep praying!

A Story: Nationalized

Nationalized is a short fiction work about the possible outcomes of nationalized healthcare. Generation Joshua has linked to it on their Facebook page, and I also encourage you to read it! I think it may be a great tool for encouraging awareness and involvement on this all-important issue.

Having had a lot of contact with the current private healthcare system, I will be the first to admit that it is by no means perfect, however I cringe to think what I and my family may have to go through if it were nationalized. The world of medicine is not cut-and-dried. It is not a world of if 'A' then 'B' - it is a world of "what is 'A', and what should 'B' look like". Any non-traditional illness needs to receive non-traditional treatments, and there are very large concerns that anything non-traditional may indeed be significantly limited - and you wouldn't believe how many people need that sort of help!

Anyhow, enough of my pontification, go and read the story, and I hope you think about it.

A Shocking Message Regarding American Christianity

Oh, may God bless you through this... I have never heard any preacher so powerful, nor a message so... I can't describe it, but you MUST listen to this, I know it's long, but listen anyway.

God's Gifts

There have been many things happening here, but the one that I most want to talk about is God's gifts through the ACT.

Thank you so much for your prayers - it is only via prayer that this happened...

First, there was supposed to be a huge snow storm showing up early in the morning of the ACT, which would have canceled it.

Then, there was a particular place in the room I wanted - in the front near an edge, because I'm not used to working in a classroom and the people would have been very distracting.

Then, there was a big problem. When I was doing practice tests, as soon as I was done, I crashed physically and psychologically. Well, the real test went a full hour and a half longer than my practice ones did because they read all the rules in between every single section. So, guess what? At just the time when I usually finished, I really crashed, really bad, and literally just randomly filled in the ovals on at least 1-15 questions out of 40.

But, God allowed what I think is a miracle - The snow was held off until the afternoon - I got the front CORNER seat, so I only had one person next to me, and I was next to the window, which was wonderful! Then, as to the crashing, first of all, that section that I crashed on, went JUST FINE! It wasn't my best score, but it was one that I had gotten before. However, the complete score, the composite was HIGHER than I have ever gotten through all the practice tests... It's amazing!

Praise God!

The ACT and Other News

I know it's been terribly long since I posted something that wasn't a video or political commentary, but I really have been doing a lot lately.

First, I completed geometry! Yay!

The amazing part is that I started it on February 4th, and then finished it on March 4th! I honestly don't understand how I did that, except that all of a sudden, just after finishing the Chaparral Cleanse that I think I mentioned, my brain "turned on" as I call it. I was able to do math better than I have literally in years.

That means, (drum roll) that I have actually finished all my high school coursework!!! I.E. I have graduated high school but haven't "walked" yet!!

That left me with exactly one month to study for that dreaded, avoided and generally feared ACT. I have now been studying for that month, and will be taking it tomorrow. I was doing quite well on the practice tests until yesterday, when I suddenly got a 19 (on a scale of 1-36 with 36 high) on the READING section of all things! I've been getting scores in reading between 30 and 34 or so, and then all of a sudden I got 19? It doesn't make sense. But, I think it may have something to do with the form of the test, that was the first one I did online. With the online tests, it scores for you and everything, but it also gives you much smaller type and you have to scroll through the text that you're reading, which I think makes it much harder to reference while asking the questions, so I was going far more by memory. (SAT people, on the ACT you can reference the passages as often as you like while answering the questions, and that includes the writing prompt).

Anyhow, I've been turning my clock around in preparation for this, and have been getting up consistently at 6:20am - an amazing feat for me! But, this morning and yesterday, I've been waking up at around 5:30, and having trouble getting back to sleep. That's hard, because I'm losing a bunch of sleep that I really need.

I could really use prayer about the ACT, that I'm not nervous, and that my brain doesn't just decide to quit on me and go to sleep, and also that I'm able to rest well today and tonight.

On another front, we have finally decided on a Church - send up a flare! It certainly took us long enough - 7 months since we moved here. It's a small congregation about 10-15 minutes from us, which is very nice, and we really like it. At the end of it all, we were deciding between that church, which we'd been visiting off and on for a few months now, and another that was down on the west side of the city. It was a hard choice! But, even though we picked the one closer up here, I'm actually getting involved in a group from the one further down in the city.

Actually, I'm scaring myself, because the group I've started attending is, get this, the college and career group! AHHHHH!!!!! It's just that I felt like it would be silly to join a youth group for 2 months until I had gone through a graduation ceremony just to leave and join the college group. And, since I've never been in a youth group, I didn't really think this was the time to start. So, I am now attending this group, and I have enjoyed the two weeks I've been to - there would have been more, but I had to skip a week, long story.

Oh, and really funny, Dad, my father, who is technologically advanced, but perhaps not so much on the Internet until recently, got a Face book! So, if you've got one, send him an friend invitation for me.

Daniel Hannan

This is an amazing video - if only one of our American Republicans would speak out this way towards Obama.

Federal Friday: Republican's Going the Right Direction!

Below is commentary from Gary Bauer's End of Day Report, but first, I first want to state some things very clearly concerning what has happened regarding the "Stimulus" Bill:

1) Nancy Pelosi and President Obama shut out the Republican's from having any say in the "stimulus" bill... I.E., not one Republican wrote one word of it!
2) The Republican's stood strong against the "stimulus" bill, and not one Republican voted for it!
Translation: Not ONE Republican can be tied to this bill... if (or, rather, when) it fails, not one Republican will be able to become the Democratic scape goat!

This is excellent news... yes, even though the thing passed, it is a huge step in the "Right" direction for the Republicans! (Please pardon the pun)

From Gary Bauer's End of Day Report:

GOP Stands Firm!
Congratulations to House Republicans! Few thought they could do it, but they held together, stood firm and voted unanimously against the pork-filled monstrosity. The bill is over 600 pages long, and by one estimate it will cost us approximately $1.8 billion per page.

Of course, the liberal media wait until the day after it passes the House before they tell the American people what is in the bill. Remember all those “shovel ready” infrastructure programs President Obama promised? Well, the Boston Globe reports this headline today, “Only 5 percent of $819b plan would go toward infrastructure.”

The New York Times tells us, “Components of Stimulus Vary in Speed and Efficiency.” Speed and efficiency should be the most important considerations in any serious stimulus bill, but this was not a serious stimulus bill. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that most of the money will not be spent until 2010 or years later. In addition, the Associated Press reports today that the bill may even allow illegal aliens to qualify for additional benefits.

Here’s the truth: This is not an economic stimulus bill at all. It is a Democrat Party stimulus bill – payoffs to leftwing special interest groups with your tax money! The public may slowly be waking up. A new Rasmussen poll finds that only 42% of likely voters support this “stimulus” plan.

But even with the GOP voting unanimously against the bill, and even with 11 brave Democrats also voting against it, this budget buster passed by a wide margin of 244-to-188. It passed because the Democrats defeated dozens and dozens of conservatives in the past two elections by outspending us and outworking us.

This vote should be a wake-up call to conservatives who have walked away from the GOP, who backed third party candidates with no hope of winning or who just didn’t bother to vote at all. Elections have consequences. And when conservatives don’t participate, the Left will always win.
Here’s my point: The next two years will be rough and there will be many setbacks. But Republicans are fighting back! And rather than focusing our frustration on our friends in the minority party, let’s remember who is setting the agenda and who control Congress – Barack Obama, Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi. Now, let’s get to work rebuilding our conservative movement so we can take back Capitol Hill in 2010! There are reasons to be encouraged about the future, and I will report them in the days ahead.

Media Distortions

Big liberal media are very good at taking a falsehood and repeating it over and over again until it is accepted as fact. Let me tell you what you’re going to hear in the next few days, because it’s already started. The Republicans are going to get slammed day after day for opposing the president and for “irresponsible partisanship,” as Nancy Pelosi’s press release put it today. After all, President Obama went to Capitol Hill and spent two hours with Republicans trying to win their support. How dare they vote against his top priority!

But bi-partisan means that both sides give up something and both sides get something. This bill was written by Democrats and the Obama White House. None of the GOP’s ideas were incorporated in the bill. It was Obama and Pelosi who killed bi-partisanship – not the GOP.

Here’s something else you need to know. In the next few days, the Left will flood GOP offices with angry messages, saying they will never get reelected. If your representative is a Republican, please call and thank him or her. The number is 202-224-3121. Simply ask the operator to connect you to your congressman’s office.

I went to Capitol Hill today to thank as many House Republicans as I could. Then I went to the Senate, where the fight is about to begin, and I encouraged Senate conservatives to close ranks behind our key principles of lower taxes, less spending and support for traditional values.

Campaign for Working Families
2800 Shirlington Road
Suite 930
Arlington, VA 22206

Phone: 703-671-8800
Fax: 703-671-8899