I don't understand "racial insensitivity" as it is defined by some in our society today.

It's clear in Scripture that everybody's equal. It's that simple.

(As a sidenote, it is truly unfortunate that Christianity has had such a huge historical role in racism and seeming hatred toward groups that weren't like they were)

But I'd like to cite two examples that confound me.

1. Rush Limbaugh. He said: "the media has been very desirous that a black quarterback do well."

He got fired over that statement, because of its supposed racial insensitivity. Maybe it is, but I don't see it. The statement certainly has racial undertones but so does this one: "Byran's skin is white." Is that racist? I don't get it.

2. A David Williams wrote a column in the Barometer (OSU student newspaper) entitled "A Message from a white male to the African American community." (Williams Article)

In it he suggested that perhaps the reason the black community has struggled in this country (in the areas of poverty and crime, for instance) is because they lift up members of their communities that aren't worth lifting up.

He says, "...there is a lack of morality in the black community because African American leaders, whether Jesse Jackson or the NAACP, choose to rally around minorities who seem to have little quality characteristics about them."

Maybe I'm naive or stupid, but I don't understand what is racist about this if racism is defined as bias against a particular race on the basis of their race. He's not demeaning African Americans by pointing this out, is he? I don't think so. Elsewhere in the article he mentions that there are many fine people in the black community that would serve as wonderful role models.

He may be painting with a broad brush. Maybe he's over-generalizing. I don't know. I can't figure it out.

I don't have much experience with racism. All I know is that people are equal, and should be treated such. How this article fails to do that is beyond me at this point.

Money’s such a hindrance sometimes. Sigh.

One recent night I was struggling; lots of unsettledness. I’m housesitting, which presents its own challenges, but one wonderful thing about it is that in the solitude I can pour my guts out to God. And I did that night. And it was so good. And I felt closer to God than I had in awhile. The unsettledness, the craziness, the lack of peace, I felt it drawing me to God. And I thought, maybe this is how it works, this roiling heart of mine is causing me to run back to God and renew my relationship with him. Because it’s been sort of dry lately.

God is so good. I can’t really emphasize enough how peaceful I’ve been. What a wonderful peace is in the Lord.

So tired.

I was going to post this:

"I'm tired, but peaceful."

But then I started wrestling with a scholarship application that I don't have all the materials for and is due tomorrow and...

Ah, the cares of life.

But I am rather peaceful right now, which is strangely cool, because there's sure a lot of stuff happening right now.

You can't be fulfilled doing something you don't believe in.

A brown-clad-foot-inserted-into-brain example

I dropped my cell phone last week.

My cell phone wasn't ringing when people were calling me.

Logic would tell you (at least it told me) that the drop (onto concrete) messed something up.

So I gave it to Randy to take into town and get fixed/replaced/analyzed.

Turns out some genius figured out that the ringer was just turned down.

Whatever. How'd that happen?

Randy has a girlfriend. I'd post a picture but there are none on the web, and much to Tom's chagrin I don't know how and it's only because I don't have the right combo of desire and time.

Shelley Graber, Kon's wife's sister.

He's very excited, understandably.

Two other guys came home from Bible School attached as well.

I've been saying that 2004 may be known as "The Year the Love-Bug Struck the Brownsville Mennonite Church Bible-Schoolers." Catchy, eh?

The dean of men at BMA BI asked one of the guys (or maybe more than one) how the Bible School could be improved and the student suggested keeping the "Oregon guys" away. That's five girls in two years from the Midwest or further. Not that they all met at Bible School, but that's where the asking out happened.

So I went to that Golden Key meeting last night.

These honor societies and organizations--overrated. You join them because they look good on a resume. They provide you with "leadership" and service opportunities. I didn't put quotation marks around "service" because they are legitimate. It's just that the motivation may not be so much for the service as for the sparkle it could put on your resume.

Then again, if they help you get a job, I guess they're not very overrated, are they?

I don't know, maybe I'm being sucked into playing the "game."

It is nice to be around people that are serious about school. But even geeks aren't immune to BYOB (bring your own beer) at their BBQ's. Fortunately, it was shot down because of legal issues.

I might go, it's free food.

A professor steps into a classroom and muddles around getting ready. The class is abuzz with conversation.

Then, the professor looks up. He doesn't say anything, but just raises his head and stares at the class. The conversation suddenly quiets.

The power of a look.

Going to meet new people tonight, a sometimes-apprehensive proposition. I hope there's food.

It's a Golden Key Honor Society meeting. I wonder what they do there.

In the lives of associates--whether they be families or quartets or followers of a person--there are watershed moments that occur, moments that indelibly change the course of the particular group of people.

One such event happened in February of 2003 in relation to AHQ. No less than two of our members began special relationships, one of which has already culminated in marriage.

It's easy to see some of the ramifications that this has had on the group. Priorities shift dramatically, logistics complicate significantly, and things are not as they were.

Now, at the risk of over-generalization, I think eveyone has had those experiences in which sleep is nearly impossible and when you do get to sleep you wake up the next morning and everything is different.

Today is Easter. This morning was so beautiful.

I was walking outside to the car to go to church, and I just stopped. I stopped and thought about what it must have been like for Jesus' associates the night that they found out that He was alive. Can you imagine the trouble they might have had going to sleep? And then waking up in the morning and realizing that it was real. That it wasn't a dream, that Jesus wasn't dead.

Can you imagine?

Everything changed for them. Everything was different.

The magnitude of that moment has never been equaled in the history of our world.

Let us never forget how it changed the course of history, and let us never forget how it has changed our lives.