Brandon Heath absolutely crushed me yesterday morning… not that he reads this, but Brandon, i owe you one when next we meet… see, i don’t normally listen to music in the car anymore, but since i had finished the podcast i was listening to and only had a short while to go before work, i click-wheeled over to Brandon’s new album which i guess isn’t out yet, but i’ve really been digging the first track called “Give Me Your Eyes” which talks about seeing the world through God’s eyes, which is sobering enough, but then he follows it with “Wait and See“…

That doesn’t mean much to most of you, since the album’s not out and all, but i think i’ve made it pretty clear that work has been a continual frustration… and, well, i’ve been weighing my options, praying and wondering what to do next… kind of like asking myself what i want to be when i grow up and realizing that i already have the responsibilities of a grown up… anyway, driving into work, Brandon smacks me across the head with the following lyrics…

Amazing… anyway, this is a short work week which also helps make it go down smoother… let’s talk about a few other things, shall we?

MR ROBOTO

to the tune of Mr. Roboto - Styx

We went to see the new Pixar/Disney film Wall-e on opening day… my wife managed to get us admission for four for about six bucks which was good because she fell asleep a few times during the movie… i enjoyed it quite a bit and the boys were cracking up on and off throughout the whole film… the first thirty minutes don’t include any dialogue, but that didn’t seem to bother either of them as they enjoyed the physical humor of a robot discovering various items in the trash piles…

Certainly there was a strong hint of the whole global warming issue which i’m sure will cause someone to scream about liberals in the media, but i mean really, it was more of a social commentary about our own laziness… too lazy to clean up after ourselves, leaving piles of trash everywhere so that we need to escape the world to a cruise where no one has to do anything for themselves and we become the floppy beings who can’t even stand on their own two feet…

the real message was about finding purpose in life, breaking out of the routine and standing for something… nothing wrong with that…

CRAZY CHRISTIANS

to the tune of Drive It Home - Paul Alan

So, i came across two different articles about the “Conservative leaders” secretly meeting last week and deciding to support John McCain for president… this doesn’t surprise me at all, since any exploration into the character of Obama hasn’t led me to put any trust in this man… I’m not saying that McCain is perfect, but for what it’s worth, i’m more confident in his leadership than i am in Obama’s… (besides, i’ve been told that Obama is, in fact, the anti-Christ and that once he’s elected, we have seven years until Heaven)… (actually, that leads me to a different topic, but i’ll have to come back to it later)…

The Charisma article has an interesting quote that kind of echoes what i think will be the main thrust of the campaign… “‘The alternative is so bad we must support John McCain,’ said Phyllis Schlafly, founder and president of Eagle Forum”… this, folks is what they call a lose-lose situation… this is where they say to keep your chin up and make the best of a bad situation, knowing that it could be worse… in situations like that, there’s honestly no winner…

Of course, the truth of the matter is that Obama is an absolutely terrible alternative… Mike Janke goes into great detail about Obama’s stand on abortion, pointing out that his support extends to partial birth abortions and even the killing of infants who have managed to survive such procedures after they’re out of the womb… not at all consistent with his emphasis on the youth of the nation, though i suppose… well, never mind… Furthermore, Stephen Mansfield, author of The Faith of George Bush and soon to be author of The Faith of Barack Obama, talks on and on about the sincerity of Obama’s Christianity, stating that he is both unapologetically Christian and unapologetically liberal… but most interesting is the final line of the article… “Mansfield said he will vote against Obama in November for a single reason: ‘Because I’m pro-life.’”…

I think the biggest danger is the defeatist attitude that may keep voters on their couches instead of voting in November…

THE READING ROOM

to the tune of Summer Again - The Afters

Updated list for Mark Lee’s Summer Reading Club…

I wasn’t sure that i’d get any finished this week, but it looks like i will… maybe even two… gonna have to make some adjustments to avoid the oh-fer next week though… and i think i need to pick some lighter books… i’m imbalanced in the non-fiction side of things…

- It All Goes Back in the Box (Ortberg)
- Deadly Viper Character Assassins (Foster & Wilhite) [audiobook]
- The Word of Mouth Manual (Balter)
- Character Makes a Difference (Huckabee)
- Simplicity (Salomon) [about 10 pages left]
- You Don’t Need a Title to Be a Leader (Sanborn) [about 75 pages left]
- The Parent You Want to Be (Parrott) [about 150 pages left]
- Boys Should Be Boys (Meeker) [about 180 pages left]
- New Way to Be Human (Peacock) [about 200 pages left]
- Wide Awake (McManus)
- At the Crossroads (Peacock)
- Deliver Us from Evelyn (Wells)
- The Two Towers (Tolkien)
- Quiet Strength (Dungy)
- UnChristian (Kinnaman & Lyons)
- Prince Caspian (Lewis)
- Searching for God Knows What (Miller)

FULL LIST HERE…

MOVING ON

Hey, everyone, have a great fourth of July weekend… really… don’t blow off any fingers or toes or burn down any houses or whatever… just have fun… celebrate the establishment of this great nation… we can work on keeping it that way starting on Monday…

peace… love… bdg….