Obama-Biden 2008! A Vote for Toasters!

This is part of a transcript I read on rushlimbaugh.com.

RUSH: This next is unreal. Joe Biden was on the Today show talking to the hostette there, Meredith Vieira, who asked him, "What specifically will your tax plan do to boost the economy?"

BIDEN: Our tax plan would take that tax cut of another $130 billion that John wants to give to people making over $250,000 next year, not let it go forward and give it to the middle class, the very people who desperately need it to stay in their homes, to buy food, to take care of the gas to fill up their tank, to be able to go out and buy a toaster, to unemployed people.

RUSH: To go out and buy a toaster! Joe Biden, Obama will give you a toaster! Along with a rice cooker left over from the supply in Cuba that Fidel Castro failed to give away to all of his people. Obama is going to give you a toaster.

Yup! My unemployed dad is in dire need of going out and buying a toaster! Doesn't need health insurance, groceries, or money to pay the bills, but a toaster.

Obama-Biden 2008 - Our Hope For America.

I Will Not Forget

Seven years ago today the World Trade Towers were hit by two airplanes that had been hijacked by Islamic terrorists. Life in the United States changed that day in ways we have so quickly adjusted to that we have forgotten them.

I don't know about you, but the minute I got home from school I sat down and asked questions til I figured out precisely what happened, and then I watched as the news kept replaying those hours that changed our lives.

Since that fateful day I have been to New York City and I have stared into the gaping whole that was the Trade Towers. After seeing that colossal hole I cannot forget what happened. The mere size of it was amazing! Since that trip I have not been able to get out of my head the pictures and the reality of what happened, of what directly effected tens if not hundreds of thousands of people in a few short minutes.

Since that day I have known soldiers who have headed off to war. I have watched the faces of sons, husbands, daughters, and wives of people near me, flicker across my television. These are people like you and me that will NEVER come home.

I have listened and seen the world turn since that day and I have seen many people forget what happened and ignore it.

Well, I will not forget. I cannot forget. The images are burned into my memory clearly, deeply, vibrantly. My heart still aches when I think of the lives lost, my patriotism swells when I think of the soldiers who are fighting to keep it from happening again.

Heroes were made that day, and many more have been made since. I thank them, each and every one of them. You have my prayers, my thoughts, and my thanks.

I have not forgotten and I will not forget. I WILL REMEMBER.

When God Doesn't Answer

This was my great summer muse.

Where is God? Why isn’t He doing something about this? Why isn’t He keeping this from happening? ARE YOU THERE GOD? ARE YOU EVEN PAYING ATTENTION? Because it sure doesn’t seem like it…

Most of us have asked some variety of these questions at least once. I know I certainly have. Now I can talk myself back through my theology and remind myself that God is there. He’s always there. However, I had not quite settled on why He just stood by seemingly helpless or disinterested.

Why doesn’t He keep So-and-so from doing that hurtful thing?

Question: Why doesn’t God stop you from doing _______? Why doesn’t He intervene when you try to do _______?

Answer: Because He has given us free will and He loves us so much that He will not force us to do anything. He loves us and wants us to obey Him because we love Him. Not because He made us.

I know this, but I’m not a big mercy shower. I desire justice! Or at least thwarting of plans. It has frustrated me for years that He so seldom seems to interfere. It took me a while, but I suddenly realized one day that God sometimes does something more cruel than interfere or thwart. Sometimes He lets our plans work themselves out. Do you know what happens when our plans work themselves out? We end up in a very sticky, nasty, muddy, knotted tangle. We know very little. Our plans only work in a small, thoroughly controlled by us environment if we’re lucky. By letting our plans work themselves out in the very unpredictable world, God is pretty much just letting us set ourselves up for failure. Our plans end in failure. The end.

Fortunately for us, God is not the sort to look down His nose at us and say, “Ha! You silly people! Serves you right!” and then walks away. Instead, He untangles the mess, pulls the pieces of debris from our hair and clothes, cleans us up, and sets us back where we are to be.

If He does that for you and me, then He is allowing the same to happen to So-and-so who is doing such-and-such. If that gives you vindictive peace of mind, have fun with that thought, but that is missing a lot of points as well as the mark of this whole thing.

I stand before you as one who has hurt and who has been hurt. I write to you as one who is hurting, who is watching people I love and care for being hurt. It breaks my heart! I cannot even describe to you how it breaks my heart. I don’t understand what purpose God has in allowing this to go on. I understand and know very little about most things, but I am very certain on this: God doesn’t always stop people from doing bad things. It pains Him to see His creations hurting each other, but He loves us enough to not stop us, to not usurp our free will. I know in my heart that no matter what bad thing happens, God WILL work it for good. Even if it’s a good we don’t understand or don’t comprehend as yet. We will one day.

I cried til I nearly drowned in my tears, I poured out my heart to God until there was nothing left to pour. I struggled, I wrestled, I ran screaming and sobbing through the swirling mists of my sorrows and questions til I found myself lying in a cold, dreary, empty place… then I awoke and found myself in the warm arms of my Savior. He had heard my cries, he had dried my tears, and told me “Peace child, you do not understand.”

Frustration...

Every once in a while I get insanely frustrated with something trivial. Today my frustration was diverted and changed course to be focused at a book my roomie is reading for a class. I can't say everything in the book I disagreed with, but I disagreed with the heart behind it. Mainly that there wasn't one. It was a book on relationships, but nothing was mentioned about love. From the parts read to me it seemed like a bush beating laundry list of relational do's and don't's. That's not a relationship.

Relationships are not based on convenience or "what you can do for me". At least, they shouldn't be. God's initial relationship with man was one that was based on love. Tragically, it was marred and we've never fully recovered from it. This book painfully brought that reality back to me. This list of do's and don't's was created, I'm sure, with the best of intentions. I'm sure it was meant to help (the various forms of relationships between men and women) and give pointers and suggestions, but the spirit of love was painfully absent.

When the author penned it he forgot the most important key ingredient in any healthy relationship - love. The book touched on relationships from general to intimate. When it got to the relationship between married couples and tried to explain and define the roles it talked of submission and deference, but I never noticed the word love.

I suppose it could have been assumed to be there, or taken for granted but if this was the case, it is almost more tragic it was omitted. Now I'm not married, but in observing the healthy relationship between my parents I can honestly say that love saturates every part of their married lives. From decisions on trivial things like where we should go out to dinner that Sunday and when we should leave for vacation; to what school they should put us children in and where they should go on their anniversary - each decision is made with the other (or others) in mind with the proper amounts of submission, deference, and love.

This book made it seem like this relationship was something very hard you have to work at. Maybe it is, but judging by the ease my parents seem to have in it, I'm not inclined to think so.

This leaves me thinking something is wrong somewhere and I'm not thinking it's with the twenty some odd years of marriage and three well raised children, but with the book.

The point? Well... there isn't much of one besides disliking the book severely. But, if I had to pick, I'd say that it is this: Any relationship based on rules and regulations has missed the point. It's not even a relationship. God does not come to us saying, "Here are my rules, obey them OR ELSE!" He doesn't force us to obey Him or obey His commandments. Instead, He invites us to love Him back. When we love anyone we try to make them happy by doing things that make them happy. We know what those are because we know them. Obviously none of us are talking or walking with God in a physical sense, so He gave us His book to tell us what he likes and dislikes and helps us know what it takes to please Him.

Of course I'm generalizing a little bit here, but essentially, that is it. He has laid out everything we need to know to love Him and know Him in the way He always meant us to.

Am I saying commandments are merely guidelines or suggestions? No! Good grief no! Am I saying God is primarily concerned with us following those rules? No. Because we can follow the rules and regulations perfectly all day long and it will get us no where if we don't love and desire to please Him first.

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P.S. This was not my great summer muse.

Coming Soon...

Sooner or later I'll post my great muse I started over the summer. It's a bit tricky and needs careful wording so there's not confusion. So, hopefully you all will have something substantial to read on my blog soon.

As well, part 3 of the Tales from Farmacie should appear sooner or later.

Until then, I'll just report that I'm still alive, classes are going reasonably well, and I'm working on honing some skills of mine.

Crazy mad ninja skills.

...or just crazy mad Frank skills....