Ok, so, I haven't blogged anything here since June. Wow, am I a slacker. Things have been ok. Life moves at its usual breakneck speed, and I am tempted to add more things to my already-hectic schedule. I just joined the company soccer team. That'll be fun. Let's see, I had surgery a week ago, and managed to get a nasty little infection from it, but some hardcore antibiotics (which are THE nastiest thing I have ever tasted, onions included) have gotten me back to feeling mostly human again. I'm still freaking tired, but I'm not doing anything until tonight, so I can just lay around and sleep if I want to. :)

We recently got DVR. I confess, I'm still a little baffled by it. However, the ability to watch Life at 10:36 on a Friday night is pretty cool. For those of you whop have not heard of this show, check it out. Charlie Crews (actor Damien Lewis from Band of Brothers) has served twelve years of a life sentence for something he didn't do, and has now been released, promoted, and given and enourmous salary with which to solve his own case. Adam Arkin (Dr. Stanley Keyworth from the West Wing) is also in it. I think I might have found my West Wing replacement show. It's been a long time coming. Grey's Anatomy bid fair, but it's just too smutty.

Mer... not to much to say right now. Hope eveyone's having a great weekend ! 

12:07 am

Ok, I have this really odd compulsion to watch Schindler's LIst right now. I couldn't tell you why that movie is my favorite movie of all time. God knows it is depressing as hell, and there's a lot of graphic stuff in it, which I geberally don't tend to get into. I don't know. I am just really enamoured of that movie.

I'm on brain overload again. Big surprise. This always happens after even a semi-insightful Bible study, and I have never had the experience of Chris Wolford teach anything less than heavy-duty insightful. I had so many thoughts tonight, and as usual, it seems like all the really good ones vanished. Poof! Gone. Nuts. I guess I'm just going to have to trust God that He let me keep the ones I really need right now.

Anticipating something of a shutdown, I started reading in the Word last night, just so I could have a better clue of what was going on. I just want to have a deeper understanding of the things we discuss. Plus, I find that it's actually interesting to sit and think about this stuff. Anyway, as usual, I started to get caught up in words and their meanings, and on particular phrase stuck with me: "Think of yourself with sober judgement..." I decided to look up sober in the dictionary, and I discovered  that the root of the word is the Latin sobrius, which is a relative word of ebrius ("drunk"). Of course my brain wandered along to other relative words - inebriated, ebullient (not actually sure about that one, but it makes sense to me). Checking out the definitions, I found three that were especially relevant to our passage.

*marked by sedate or gravely or earnestly thoughtful character or demeanor

*marked by temperance, moderation, or seriousness

*showing no excessive or extreme qualities of fancy, emotion, or prejudice

Switch of topic

"Romans 13:13-14 ~ Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. Rather clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of a sinful nature."

 I am almost too worn out to think... yet the brain keeps going and going. I wish it would slow down long enough to make sense of just one or two thoughts before it races on to the next ridiculous musing. I think I might have to pick up this vent another time. Sorry for the long post, friends. You all know how verbose I can be. :P We're working on it.

Love and serve

So, the command that God has put on my heart lately has been to love and serve. I'm sure I have mentioned this to at least some of you by now. I love it when God gives me a task that is easy. Right now, my life is pretty well filled with people who are easy to love, and it pleases me (usually) to serve well the people I care about. However, I find that the people I sort of keep on the fringes of my circle I neither love nor serve to the best of my abilities. It is so much harder to love the people that I'm not close to. On the other hand, I have been finding that usually with just a small amount of effort, I can at least be kind and friendly to those people. That feels like a good step in the right direction, and I feel like God is pleased with the fact that I make the effort. I saw a West Wing episode a while back in which Leo (the Chief of Staff) said something about how he knew the President didn't always know how to please the Lord, but the fact that he wanted to was pleasing to Him. That's a nice thought.

As everything has a flipside, I must admit that there are still a few people that I find difficult to love and serve (and most of you know right away who I mean). I know God didn't put the call on my heart for the ones it is easy to love, but rather for the ones I am less inclined to even think kindly about. These are the people that rebuff every kind move I make, the ones who, when I lay my heart before them, choose to stomp, the ones who mock the way I try to repair hardships I did not introduce into our relationships, the ones who, instead of taking responsibility for the thigns they have done said, choose instead to avoid, write off, and in general pretend the things I have done and said on their behalf (behalves?) don't exist. However, lack of effort on other's parts does not excuse it on my part; at the end of the day, it isn't enough to say, "Lord, this person will never reciprocate, so I should be excused from my duties to them." Call me crazy, but I don't think God will take kindly to that.

Love and serve, love and serve, love and serve - guys, I might need some help from y'all on this one.

Heard on NPR

Heaven on Earth

I saw Jesus at the bowling alley,
slinging nothing but gutter balls.
He said, "You've gotta love a hobby
that allows ugly shoes."
He lit a cigarette and bought me a beer.
So I invited him to dinner.

I knew the Lord couldn't see my house
in its current condition, so I gave it an out
of season spring cleaning. What to serve
for dinner? Fish—the logical
choice, but after 2000 years, he must grow weary
of everyone's favorite seafood dishes.
I thought of my Granny's ham with Coca Cola
glaze, but you can't serve that to a Jewish
boy. Likewise pizza—all my favorite
toppings involve pork.

In the end, I made us an all-dessert buffet.
We played Scrabble and Uno and Yahtzee
and listened to Bill Monroe.
Jesus has a healthy appetite for sweets,
I'm happy to report. He told strange
stories which I've puzzled over for days now.

We've got an appointment for golf on Wednesday.
Ordinarily I don't play, and certainly not in this humidity.
But the Lord says he knows a grand miniature
golf course with fiberglass mermaids and working windmills
and the best homemade ice cream you ever tasted.
Sounds like Heaven to me.

Kristen Berkey-Abbott

Hurrahs