The Struggle is Real

I am praying for God to show me where I have let comfort, privileged and control become more important than doing God's will.  One of my current struggles is with one of my twelve year olds.  He is insisting that he needs a device to be able to communicate with his friends.  Even writing this is causing my brain to start snapping all kinds of jumbled information.

I grew up with a telephone attached to a wall.  I shared one phone line with the three other people in my house and the four people in the house down the road.  We talked into this device.  We wrote notes in class, on paper, with a pen, to communicate with friends at school.  After school we talked, in groups, face to face.  Apparently is is primitive behavior that is out dated and needs to be seen as such. 

The twelve year old in question has managed to get into situations where we have been required to talk to law officers and counselors, both of which have looked my husband in the eye and said that he needs to allow him to earn a device and learn to use it with set limits, and that we should help him do this.  Nice.  Really?  My oldest child did not get a cell phone until she was 16, able to drive, and working.  My twelve year old spends his time at school, with me, or at practice.  He does not NEED to communicate with his friends by text.  He has the opportunity all day long to communicate with his friends by speech or by the primitive art of note writing.  Teaching children how to set healthy limits with the internet, as far as I can tell is nearly impossible.  How many adults do I know that are good with setting reasonable boundaries on their internet use?  I haven't even seen any good definitions of what a reasonable boundary is.  Is two hours a day of snap chat reasonable? This is a hot topic of debate at my dining room table (where cell phones are not allowed).  The whole idea of social media is to create a need to be connected (are we really connected?) so that we are compelled to constantly be checking to see if people are responding to us.  My kids act like drug addicts with their cell phones, and I see no reason why giving my twelve year old, who has an obvious lack of self control, a device is going to make either of our lives better.  I'm sorry officer whoever, I disagree with you.  I could rant for quite some time on the fact that this is child number 8, so not my first rodeo, and none of them so far has ended up in jail.  I think I have some idea of when my children have need of a cell phone.

I believe the problem is a need for control.  But this is where I get all kinds of confused.  He wants to control his life, as all twelve year olds do.  I want to control the boundaries I allow him to have.  At times I want to control the counselors and ask them to do their job and let me do mine.  When I feel like the twelve year old is controlling me the battle lines get drawn really quickly.  This is when I lose all sense of proportion and pull the mamma bear with an attitude and no one does anything productive.  What I want is to help my son understand his need for control and deal with his lack of control in healthy ways.  I was hoping the counselor would have the skills to address this, and maybe he does we just haven't given it enough time (but time is money people, and this counseling stuff isn't cheap).  By the way, if you are considering adoption, add years of counseling at $125/hour times at least 24 visits per year to your estimated costs, seriously.  The big question is which one of us needs counseling?  According to the officer and the counselor I do.  I cannot accept this.  Well, actually I can accept this, I do agree I need counseling but like I said it is expensive.  I am confused about how my changing my attitude towards technology is going to help my son deal with his control needs.  I am certain that if I hand him the iPhone X today he will not be satisfied and the need for control will pop up in some other area.  This I know.  What I don't know is how to kindly, gently, respectfully lead my son in giving up the need for control and walk in trust with his God.  Maybe God needs me to practice my walk with Him.  Maybe this struggle is more about my need to control my son than it is about his need to have access to technology, which is probably what officer what's his name and the counselor think is going on.  I'll take that up with God.  Meanwhile back on the home front I need to walk in an accepting way.  I need to treat my son with kindness and compassion.  I need to walk in truth and love.  That sounds really nice and neat on this screen, but it is really messy in my kitchen.  I just sent him out the door to school.  I had to apologize for being too harsh this morning the third time I went in to tell him to get out of bed.  I had to remind him that I love him and that I accept him as he is.  I know he's not a morning person, and I need to be patient with that. 

He is my kid that pushes every possible button of mine.  He is super competitive and a showman.  Not qualities I necessarily admire.  I have seen these qualities shine in him.  I know they can bring great things out of him and others.  He rocks the football field, and his teammates love it.  He brings life to any group and has a wonderful laugh.  He is also a very deep thinker, which makes me nervous sometimes.  He needs someone to share those big thoughts with and work them out.  He needs someone wise to listen to him and help him deal with the depth of loss he has had in his life.  Sometimes being a mom is so hard because you see the need, but you aren't the one to meet it.  Thank God I have a God who I can cry out to, who knows the deeper need and can call the person up to meet it.  God had this little guy in Ethiopia.  He took care of him for four years there before he brought him to us.  We brought him to the guest house with his pants full of watches from the orphanage office.  Which is one of the reasons I am not convinced that his issues stem from my control issues.  I trust God with both of our stories.  I know God has big plans for my son.  He has brought him long distances and provided wonderful people in him life.  I need to be able to own my story.  I can't control my son.  I can't control any of my children's internet use, no matter how many parental controls and filters I have.  I can't control anyone's heart but my own.  I know that at the end of the day this is a heart issue.  Only God knows what's in our hearts.  We think we do, but we so easily deceive ourselves.  Lord give me eyes to see what you need me to see, take my hand and walk with me through this valley.

I am thankful for:
11.  Good counselors, who really are worth every penny.
12.  Sunshine on snowy mountains.
13.  Forgiveness, the great setting free.
14.  Warm slippers.
15.  Lemons, the smell of a fresh cut lemon in the winter brings all kinds of sunshine.
16.  Sore muscles, which means I got to the gym and actually did something productive.
17.  The internet, the bane of my existence which also lets me talk face to face with kids in other states.
18.  Candles
19.  Ferdinand, my cat.
20.  Oatmeal, warm, filling, low calorie sweetness on a cold morning.

What the!?

I don't usually just rant (on my blog), but this is too much!  What the heck?  I'm sitting at the salon getting my hair cut, when my stylist and good friend asks if I have heard anything about this United Airlines scandal.  I hadn't, because I was listening to an audio book on the way to my appointment (a book about WW2 Germany).  She gives me the second hand information she had which was interesting enough to warrant googling it from my chair.  We read just one article and are both so shocked we don't know what to think.

Now, two days later, it just keeps getting creepier.  I don't care who you are, how do you justify dragging a paying customer off of a plane just because you need to get one of your employees to another airport?  Then you try covering your ass by publicly embarrassing this customer with his 10 year old criminal history.  First, did you choose this guy because he had a criminal history?  Or was it because he was born outside the U.S.?  How did you come up with his criminal history so quickly and conveniently for yourself?  And why on the flip side does the media keep pointing out that he's a doctor?  So what?  What if he was a baseball coach, or a stay at home mom, or a McDonald's customer service rep?  Who in the world do you think you are, and why do you think that makes your incredibly terrible "customer service" justified? 

Customer service, what does that even mean?  It used to mean that someone was a customer.  They probably were interested in the goods or services you were providing.  They gave you money, and you provided something, likely something positive not a trip to the nearest hospital.  Service implies that you were serving them.  Serving, like putting them before you.  Like setting aside your comfort or bottom line to make their experience more enjoyable, so that they might want to interact with you again.  Well done United!  I don't want my two kids in Mississippi calling you for a ride home, EVER!  Apparently our society has decided that self service is the way to go.  I suggest we start re-thinking our self defense.  This is just a very real example of our society's ideas about who merits consideration and what motivates our willingness to treat people in any kind of dignified, human manner.

I cannot wrap my mind around this situation.  My heart is broken for this man and his family.  But there are so many things this year that I can't wrap my mind around that I am very thankful God is still in Heaven and I am not running this show.  I will not put my trust in man, or woman, or anyone else.  I will treat those around me like they are human, because they are.  I have to ask myself what would I have done if I were in the seat next to this unfortunate man.  I pray that I would have intervened.  What would I have done if I were the stewardess?  I find myself more and more asking myself what is my part?  Who am I called to stand up for and stand up to?  God give me the wisdom and grace not to become dehumanized by this culture of individual rights and basic lack of kindness.  Let me not become so cynical that I no longer bring glory to my savior.  I put my hope in God, for He alone can bring grace to me and through me.  I pray that my brothers and sisters in Christ will be strong and courageous in the days ahead and will be willing to stand up for those who can't.

World AIDS Day

I haven't written a post for World AIDS Day for a couple of years.  Maybe I should be ashamed that now that HIV is part of my mundane life, I don't get so excited about it.  The good news is that most days I don't need to think about it much.  There have been occasions when I have gotten very excited about it, and I'm sure there will be more.  This World AIDS Day what I would like is for everyone that reads this post to take a minute and do a mental check on your response to HIV.  If you knew there was a child at your child's school that had HIV, how would you feel?  Would you be comfortable having someone over for dinner that you knew was HIV+?  Do you think HIV+ people can have "normal families?"

I ask you to consider this not to make you uncomfortable or annoyed, but to cause you to think.  What do you know about HIV?  If someone made a comment about people living with HIV, could you answer them intelligently?  I do understand that most of us don't ever need to think about HIV.  Why should you care if HIV+ people can have families?  The reason you should care is because they are your neighbors, maybe literally, maybe figuratively.  You should care because so many people still know so little about the disease and how the management of it has changed in the last few years.  You should care because you may have an opportunity to educate someone else.  You should care because it takes so little time and research to know a lot more about it than most people do.

I recently had a friend ask me about whether or not my children would be able to have children of their own.  Someone had told her that mothers would always pass HIV on to their children.  This was an educated person in the business of education.  I was surprised mostly by the fact that she was so willing to pass on this misinformation without checking out the truth of the statement.  I'll admit I couldn't quote accurate statistics as to the percentage of women that have transmitted to their children, but I could tell her she was wrong, and needed to check her facts before making statements like that.  Those are the kinds of conversations that get me excited.  Nurses that don't want to handle my children, and are obviously uncomfortable having us as patients get me excited.  Really folks, it is 2011, do a little reading.

The very short blurb on my sidebar hits the high points.  HIV is not transmissible by casual contact.  People who are on medication often have undetectable viral loads, which means that the risk of them transmitting even in high risk situations is almost zero.  Mothers on medication DO NOT transmit the virus to their babies.  Our Infectious Disease Specialist told me that he couldn't say the chance is zero, but in his 15 years working with all of the western United States he knew of 3 cases, and all of them had extreme circumstances.  The reason they can't say that the chance of a mother passing the virus to her baby is zero, is that there are so few women with HIV having babies in the United States that they can't do enough studies to make that claim.  The bottom line, you cannot "catch" HIV from someone you are in casual contact with.

My challenge to you today is to take 5 minutes and do a little reading.  In that 5 minutes you may learn something new about HIV.  You may find that you have misperceptions that need to be updated.  You may find that you have an opportunity to pass on a little good information to someone else.  Here are a few suggestions:   WebMD, living and coping,  POZ magazine,  Red Ribbon Diaries article on disclosure, or just google "living with HIV".  If you would like a little more reading try picking up a copy of Abraham Verghese's book My Own Country.  Just pick one, and spend a few minutes educating yourself about HIV.  You never know when the topic might come up, and you might have the opportunity to fight the stigma surrounding the disease.  Do it as a public service, do it to make the world a better place for my kids, do it so that you can say you learned something new today.

Words

I have been thinking about the paradox of writing a post on limiting words.  I have been far too liberal with my use of words lately and I keep thinking I need to stop their flow for a while.  Then I get on the computer and crank out several hundred.  I hope that these are not wasted. 

 There was this great section in Notes From The Tilt-A-Whirl, by Nate Wilson, where he talked about the power of words.  I've thought about that a lot in the past couple of months.  He started with the point that God created the world with words.  That words have the power to bring life.  Words can be used to build people up.  I have tried to keep this in mind when I speak to my family.  I want my words to give them life.  I try to think about how to put things in a more positive light.  Instead of firing off the list of thou shalt nots, I try to encourage them to do things that are good.  This does not come naturally for me.  I have found myself on my knees every Sunday morning confessing the same lack of kindness with my tongue, over and over.  If I were God I would be tired of hearing by it now, but thankfully I am not God.

The tongue is a powerful little muscle.  In James he warns us that it emits little sparks that can burn down whole forests.  I thought about that for a long time.  A little spark, one little word, can fire up a whole family, or church, or book group, or whatever.  How often I have gone off in a rant and let a whole flame thrower out of my mouth.  It brings tears to my eyes to think about how often I let those words fly.  I can't take them back.  I can apologize and ask for forgiveness, but often the damage is done.  Those words reveal what is in my heart, and sometimes its ugliness shocks me. 

I believe that Jesus can conquer this weakness in my life.  I need to keep my mouth shut, until I have had a split second to think about what I am about to let loose.  I want to speak more light than darkness.  Sometimes I let myself be too hard on my kids, because I don't want them to be proud.  I want to build them up and encourage them, but I want them to remember that they are not perfect.  I'm still praying about how to keep that balance.  I think most of all I need to work on keeping my teeth firmly on my tongue until my ears and my brain are done with their work.  I need to spend more time listening, and meditating and less time scribbling with my words.  All of you friends that read this blog, this is your call to keep me honest.  Step on my toes when I am blathering on, I promise that I will thank you for it.

I don't want to...

We have been having a case of the "I don't want tos" around our house lately.  The symptoms are bad attitudes, back chat, general sullenness, avoidance, and creative excuses, sometimes accompanied by tears.  The cause can be almost anything, getting out of bed, cleaning their room, going to appointments, practicing for anything.  I did a little self check this morning to see if the root of the problem is seeing it so beautifully displayed before them each day.  This is where I need to have close relationships with friends and family who aren't afraid to say, "Yes, your attitude has been dismal."  Thankfully I also have a God that can bring to my mind little snippets of conversations, actually said or only pondered that would have resulted in a lecture from me had it been in one of my children's heads and not my own.  Are you following me?

I even have one daughter that will grumble about why I spend so much time making them do things when I don't do it.  Those are the comments I need to run through and see where the element of truth is.  Yes, I don't run 10 miles, not because I don't desire to, but because I am trying to keep up with them and they are already too far ahead of me.  There are things I don't want to do, but they are mostly in the realm of making my kids do the things they don't want to do.  I don't want to go downstairs and see the bathroom and remind the girls that they need to clean it up every couple of days or so.  I get the blank look, the slouched shoulders, she response that "I cleaned it last," or the scuttle as they go find something that looks productive to do.  I don't want to see that, I would rather just clean the bathroom for them.  If I did, the bathroom would be clean, really clean in half the time it will take me to get them to do it at all, let alone well.  But that is not what I need to do.  I need to help them learn to obey, right away, all the way, with a good attitude, everyday.  I need to make sure that my attitude is good in the process which is usually where I run into the ditch.

I had a monologue this morning with one daughter about taking small steps to learn how to do things that lead to bigger steps, that lead to joy in the job.  Life is work.  There is really no way around it.  Food needs to be grown, and made.  Rooms need to be picked up and tidied.  School needs to be done. Attitudes need to be checked.  Beds need to be gotten out of so that we can make them, so that they will be a joy to fall into at the end of the day.  I know that this borders on blasphemy in our culture, but I know it to be true.  He who doesn't work, doesn't eat, really.  He may eat until his parents realize their error and kick his lazy butt out of the house, but at some point it will all be real to him.  My work, that I don't want to do, is to believe that this is true, and making it real to my children now, while they are young, so that it will go well with them in the land.  Things will be less efficient for a while, and attitudes will be less than pretty, mine included unless I stick close to God, but it needs to happen.  I had to write this down so that I can read it to myself every morning.  Thanks for bearing with me.

He Who Doesn't Work...

I bought a book by Larry Burkett on Financial Parenting. I really liked Larry's approach to money management, so I picked this book up used. Rick has had time to do some reading while he travels, so he has actually read the book and is now full of ideas. He is planning to implement allowances. Something I have not been excited about due the the very haphazard work I have seen thus far.

While I am all for paying the children for work done, I am hesitant. I made a nifty little chore chart last summer, that worked quite well until school started. I have two children who are hard workers, TWO out of nine. I told Rick I would be happy to pay those two, but I needed to see a little more output from the rest. Ironically my Dad called today and told me the one he had last weekend had a propensity to take half and hour drink breaks frequently. Yep, I know. So with eyebrows raised slightly I listened as he mapped out the plan for future payment. Let me tell you I think they are getting a really good deal.

So good, in fact, that I am feeling a whole lot less motivated about vacuuming this afternoon. If they are getting paid that kind of money they can pick up their own room and vacuum too. I am not too excited about getting that new dress for protocol, or those new shoes for baseball. I have one child that will take six months to get out of debt even at this current, very generous, rate.

The principle is that they have to have a little bit of money in order to learn how to use it. Okay, I get that, but why can't they be faithful with a little first? How is that for submitting cheerfully to my hubby? I'm sure it will work out beautifully. I will have to start dropping hints about Mother's Day coming up. Maybe I just need to read the book to get inspired, instead of vacuuming.

Paperwork Nightmares

I'm heading into a full on rant here, so if you aren't interested go to someone else's blog now. My husband just pointed out to me the title of my blog, and I retorted that I don't have to love government agencies.

This all starts with our re-adoption of Nes. Yes, for those of you not familiar with foreign adoption, once you finish the adoption process in the child's birth-country you have a resident immigrant with your name. You get to re-adopt them in the US, more paperwork, official looking stamps and $$$. When this is said and done, you have...what exactly? A US birth certificate with the possibility of a new name and/or birth date based on what you have chosen and/or evidence that the previous information you had was plain wrong. You also have a green card that doesn't match the US birth certificate. Are you with me? So you head down to the social security office, where they giggle at you and say you need some other official looking paper with a stamp on it that says something else. You will ask, what office? They will smile and shrug. So you will go home and google it. You will be sent to the Dept. of Homeland security that will tell you you need a certificate of citizenship, more $$$ please. Then you can get a social security number, and a passport. If you try to sidestep this step you will be told that you need a SSN to get your passport. For an SSN you need some kind of photo id. How many photo id's does your four year old have?

When I called the Doctor's office to get a copy of his check up with his height and weight they asked for his birth date. My husband gave them the date on his US birth certificate. They said that was not the date in their file. I yelled from the other room that his Ethiopian birth date is the one that the insurance company has. They then got all huffy about giving him Nes's file because they might be giving information with and incorrect birth date. Are you kidding? Do they work for the IRS or Homeland security?

Bottom line, some questions just don't have straight answers. How old are you? Seems simple enough, but really there are A LOT of people in the world that just don't know that. It's okay, they are still people and you can still talk to them. When is your birthday? Yep, some people don't know, some have more than one. Life is messy folks. Especially for rule oriented paper pushers, these things just get them wound. The answer is not another form. Maybe the answer should be "none of the above" or "other" or some other ambiguous answer like that. All of life should not boil down to fill in the blank forms, sometimes an essay answer is required, or maybe a conversation with a rational person that can think this through.

I could go on about why we should support small ministries instead of huge bureaucratic organizations. I could plug for small government. Really this is just a frustrated rant, and a plea for a little common sense. And an explanation for why if you ask me how old Jubilee is and I give you one answer and then give you her birth date, ya, they don't add up.

Learning Patience

"What's happening with your front stairs?" This is the question that has plagued me for the last eight weeks. It should be funny that this is my big frustration. My "Which is more important, your stairs, or ....?" Maybe this is clear to all of you reading this, and if so please leave a comment. What is God trying to tell me here? Am I to be patient, long suffering, not returning evil for evil? Or am I supposed to call the state licensing board and file a complaint about the man who signed a contract saying he would repair anything that failed in the first year, and got paid all of the money he was asking for, and then tore off my front stairs, and thinks it is okay to leave them this way for two months?

Maybe I am making a mountain out of a mole hill. Maybe I should change the title of my blog from Letting Love Cover It, to the Ramblings of an Unholy Whiner. In all actuality I really don't care about my front stairs. I don't think about them until I ask someone to come over and then have to explain that they will have to walk into my garage and knock on my basement door until someone hears them, unless I happen to see them drive up and go meet them at the door. It is a small inconvenience. It is just humiliating when people ask about it, and then tell us what we should be doing about it.

When my contractor accused us of threatening him this morning, I was very glad it was my husband talking to him and not me. I think my anger would not have produced the righteousness of God. Oh yeah, I am studying James right now, that just adds to the humor of the situation. See me counting it all joy? Maybe God is working in my contractor's life. He has to decide if he would rather eat the cost and have a clean record, or let us eat the cost and file a complaint against his license. I'm glad that is his decision and not mine.

In the meantime we are thinking up fun ways to pass out Halloween candy from our garage. Dreaming of what kinds of steps we might want to build. And trying to keep in perspective what this little inconvenience means. God does not just rip off your front steps without teaching you some lesson through it. And yes it does keep me from obsessing about when the courts will re-open in Ethiopia. So for now, if you need to stop by, call from the driveway and I will open the garage door for you.

What's On My Mind?

I have been thinking about Ethiopia a lot lately. I have been praying for rain in Africa, pondering suffering, wondering how I can do more. Do I work harder here? Do I find a way to move my family there? How do I advocate for these people? This is what rolls around in my head most of the time. Yes, I realize that there is a lot of I's in those questions. God stopped the noise yesterday by pointing out that these are His people, and He has a plan for them. He also has a plan for me. My job is to be content where I am, and to pray for Ethiopia, to help where I am able.

I got a call from Hanna at Children's Heaven. She gave me an update on our sponsored daughter. It was good and bad news, requiring more prayer. AAI reported on the power situation in Addis. I also read an article about the port in Djibouti, and some of the obstacles that they are facing. Ethiopia is such a beautiful place, facing so many difficulties.

It makes me consider well life in America. We think we are past the difficulties that Ethiopia faces. I was watching a youtube video yesterday on primitive ways to drill for water that are being used in many third world countries. Some one posted a comment about how stupid it was to use these methods when there is so much better technology available. I was so tempted to blast this person with how ignorant they are. Yes, there is better technology, if you have power available, paved roads everywhere, trucks that can haul gas, gas available to be hauled, and people that are healthy enough to make all of this happen. We think the entire world has what we have. They don't. We didn't have all of this until recently. My dad, who is not that old, did not have running water and electricity at his rural home growing up. We have gotten used to life with hot showers, climate controls, paved roads, instant communication, excellent (although expensive) medical care. We somehow think we deserve all of this, it is our right.

Being in Ethiopia opened my eyes in so many ways. I realize every morning when I wake up on my comfy mattress, to my alarm clock that is plugged into the wall, and my coffee already brewing in the kitchen, that I am the recipient of some amazing gifts. These things are not my rights, they are delightful gifts. I also recognize that they may be revoked at anytime. We Americans have taken for granted that we are blessed, but it may not always be this way. Wars, famine, diseases do come. We think we can stop them with all of our scientific knowledge and technology. I doubt that. One storm event caused havoc in a large part of America that is still recovering. Droughts happen, crops fail, fires come, and we don't have endless money to fix it all, no matter what the government tries to tell you. Our lives here are very blessed, and we should be deeply grateful for them. We should not get comfortable in these blessings however; we need to remember the people that have gone before us. There are countries that were great when we were still a wilderness. They too had great riches, but now they are suffering. To whom much is given much will be required. I am grateful that my son has brought home to me how much I have been given, and caused me to contemplate how much is required.

Where does all of the paper go?

I had to take a couple of the kids in for immunizations today. I admit that I was late for my appointment. I had forgotten their shot record, and this is the first time I have taken them to the health dept. instead of the doctor's office. They had asked me to come in five minutes early, and I didn't. I had timed this appointment to efficiently take as little of the school day as possible, so it was right at 3:00, and the kids get out of school at 3:15. I knew I would be a bit late to pick up the kids, but not bad. It seemed like a good plan.

I had not factored in how much time it would take to fill out endless forms. A medical history, a financial statement, an address form, a privacy statement, etc. All that for two shots? I finally got into the examination room with the nurse, who got to fill out her part of the forms, which took another 10 minutes. She apologized for all of the paperwork, and I commented that we were in the middle of an adoption so we knew all about paperwork.

It makes me wonder how much time and money we could save if we figured out how to live without forms for everything. We have children in Ethiopia waiting for their parents to show up for court with the proper form. Isn't the fact that they traveled all day and are right there good enough? Why is it of dire importance that there be a cover letter from MOWA in every case? Why do I have to sign a paper that says I read a paper that says no one else can read the rest of these papers? I'm sure some bureaucrat would give me a long detailed intelligent sounding reason why we have to have all of this. It does appear that common sense has been swallowed up in all of the red tape. I am starting to believe that paper makes the world go round. If we didn't have well paid paper pushers our civilization would crumble. I do have a nagging feeling that if we cut the number of forms required for every appointment within our government we could probably save a few billion dollars, not to mention years of waiting.

So, I picked up my kids at 4:00. The actual shots took less than two minutes. Sheesh

Little Rant about Moaning

I am still thinking about change. We were watching our Kay Arthur video at Bible study yesterday, and she was talking about the deplorable state of the nation. It was ironic because all of the woe was about an election, not the one that ended this week, but one from four years ago. I thought it was interesting that we Christians get so caught up in all of the election hype, and are so forlorn no matter how it turns out. Why is that? God is still sovereign over it all. None of this happened without his blessing. Why do we think it is okay to walk around moaning?

It seems like those who believe that President-elect Obama is our savior have more hope than those who have the true savior, Jesus Christ. If change is what we want, we had better start serving the one who truly sets us free. We must count it all joy, and get up, pour oil on our heads and start loving our neighbor.

Whew, glad I got that out of my system. Hopefully I will be able to leave politics now until 2012.