Spilt Wine

A.A Quote of the week:
"Success is never certain and failure is never final."

I came a across an interesting quote in a book I am reading, (Amusing Ourselves to Death). In part, it read: "...no force other than reason itself could be employed to bring light to the unbeliever". It makes a lot of sense to me. I wonder though, in today's church culture, how often, if ever, do we allow people to exercise their reasoning power and skills?

Remember that stupid thing our parents use to say to us right before they gave us a spanking? "This will hurt me more than it will hurt you". As a kid, I thought that was the stupidest thing ever, but tonight, I realized its true. Because of some behavior issues, one of the which included lying to her mother, Gracie got her first official spanking from me. I didn't recite the parental line of old, but after I gave her a swat, I held her as she cried on my shoulder, I felt extremely sad over the whole incident.

A.A. Quote of the week:
"Only with love can you combat fear. You cant use hate, anger, or control because they are all allied with fear".

Charlie Brown Christmas is by far my favorite Christmas movie ever! For as long as I can remember, I have watched the Christmas special on TV every year. I like the Christmas special so much because of the message it has. Poor Charlie is so blue and down cast because he is can’t find any joy, peace or happiness within the commercialism of Christmas and it is not until Linus reminds him of the real meaning of Christmas that Charlie finds the serenity, happiness and excitement that he has been longing for. Also, it has my favorite Christmas song, Hark the Angle, at the end, which all of the characters sing together.

Though the Charlie Brown Christmas special captures the meaning of Christmas, the song Hark the Angle captures a truer meaning for me. Within the Christmas carol, there is a line, “Peace on Earth, Mercy Mild, God and Sinners Reconcile”.
For someone like me, who spent much of my youth rebelling against God, reconciliation is a huge apart of my salvation. In general I think it is a major component in all of our salvation. Since the fall of man in the garden, man and has been at war with God, and for many of people, that war continues. But for what ever reason, that really makes no sense at all, God in His perfect plan offered an olive branch to man, through the birth of Jesus Christ, and as Linus recite: “Do not be afraid, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign to you: You wilt find a baby wrapped in strips of cloths and lying in a manger”.
(Luke 2:10-17)

Paul writes a bit about reconciliation throughout the bible. He writes in Romans 5:10: For if, when we were God's enemies, we were reconciled to him through the death of his Son, how much more, having been reconciled, shall we be saved through his life!
2 Corinthians 5:18: All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation.
Colossians 1:22: But now he has reconciled you by Christ's physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation.
Romans 5:11: Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received reconciliation.

Though God didn’t have to, I am forever grateful that God found it fit to offer me(us) an opportunity to reconcile with Him and find peace through his son, Jesus Christ.

I was talking to my friends Will and Russ via e-mail about cancer and how so many people we know are being diagnosed with the wretched illness. This is what Russ had to say about it.

"Sometimes I wonder if cancer isn't a metaphor for what's wrong with us. Healthy, normal cells forget where they are and what they are there to do and so they starting growing in the wrong ways, wreaking havoc. What if that's just like us, forgetting who we are and why we are here, and so we do all kinds of things that do nothing but wreak havoc instead of the good we were made for.It is sad. The metaphor and the real thing. It's a part of what's just so wrong with the world."

That is profound! Where does he come up with this stuff? Briliant.

One of the magical and mysterious things about music is how a song can capture and keep a moment, feeling and time. I love listening to music that brings back feelings and memories, good and bad. The good memories because they warm my heart of people and places that I miss and the bad because I am reminded that I survived, grew and over came. This morning as I was driving to work on this gray, overcast, damp and cold morning, the Frank Black song, Ramona came on. I haven’t really listened to that song in years. Midway through the song I found myself lost in nostalgic thoughts of being at the coast, on a warm, sunny, June day; driving from Pismo Beach to Santa Barbara with Jason and some other close friends. The song took me back 13 years, when none of us really had any responsibilities or cares in the world. It was a happy time. For just a moment during the song, I felt as if I was reliving that drive again and it felt good.

A.A. Quote of the week:
"There are two types of problems, Cadillac Problems and Real Problems. If you don’t know the difference, a Cadillac Problem is wanting a Lexis, but can only afford a Toyota. A Real Problem is having to decide whether to put food on the table or gas in the car in order to drive to work".