A turf company’s slogan: “We just keep rolling a'lawn'”. How cheesy is that?

It’s funny how really down-to-earth human David is. He’s always complaining about his enemies and in one Psalm (44) it sounds like he just completely blames God for giving them up to their enemies all the while insisting they did nothing wrong. It’s like, God it’s totally your fault, we’re your blameless, noble children and you’ve forsaken us.

Something really scary is happening in France. There’s this proposal to ban obvious religious symbols from being worn in public schools and I believe also to restrict their public use altogether. The symbols would include the Muslim head scarf, the Jewish skull cap, and oversized Christian crosses. I haven’t seen any commentary on this, but to think that someone living in France might be restricted in what they could wear, even if it is a religious conviction, seems to me to be a startling infringement on religious liberty in the western, modern world.

The latest in my continuing thinking about witnessing/sharing the gospel. Seek out those who need love, who are down and out, because they are the ones that see that they have a need. As Philip Yancey says, they are our “ticket for entry” because they are humble. They know they’re missing something. As opposed to most of America, rich, fat, and happy in their materialistic, humanistic lifestyle.

I almost get the feeling that America could be positively influenced by the aroma of Christmas. I know it’s sorely over-commercialized and the real meaning gets lost amidst the materialism, but beyond all that, during the holiday season many, many people are exposed to Christian ideals and principles through song.

For instance, there’s a local pop station that is playing nothing but Christmas music, and they’ve been doing it for quite some time already. That’s probably 3 weeks of nothing but songs for the holidays. And Christ is plain in many of the songs. And then there are the songs that, while not pointing directly to Christ, point to Christ-like principles like peace (“let there be peace on earth, and let it begin with me”) and joy. It seems like it would make an impact.

I love to do crossword puzzles. I wish my vocabulary were larger though. Maybe that's why I need to do crossword puzzles.

So, what are a couple of the desires of my heart right now?

1. To be an effective witness, an unashamed Christian.

2. To get this certain summer job that I have my eye on.

The key--again--is delighting myself in God, and then this other stuff will tend to take care of itself.

I want to be like Andrew. He heard John the Baptist testify that Jesus was the Lamb of God. That was good enough for him, he immediately up and followed Christ.

You probably noticed that I revealed only "a couple" of the desires of my heart, thus, you infer, he has some more that he's not saying. Right. Actually, a huge one I just can't talk about right now. I've learned this from past experiences, that you can't just blab everything about your future. I mean, you can, but it's not best. So I'm not. And it's not what you think, either. Smile.

Bad advice, but very funny:

Before you criticize someone, walk a mile in their shoes. That way, you'll be a mile from them, and you'll have their shoes.
-Jack Handy

Here’s a key, key verse that speaks directly into my life. We’re talking a laser-like level of directness:

Psalm 37:4. Delight thyself also in the Lord; and he shall give thee the desires of thine heart.

I had a dream last night in which there were two fighting groups of Christians. We were really fighting, too, with real guns. Of course, elements of this story are ridiculous because it was a dream, but as we were shooting and dodging, a dear brother (who was from the other side) began working himself forward, closer to us, firing as he came. We kept dodging and soon he was very close. As he was lifting his gun to fire though, I beat him to it, and fired a bullet into the left side of his chest. He kept coming until another dear brother (this one on my side) put another bullet through him. As he was dying, we met and cried and I told him I loved him as a brother and he agreed, though he expressed the strangeness of the situation.

It was one of those emotional dreams, where the crying and agony and sorrow were almost real.

But maybe Christians are not that far away from fighting like that, just not with real weapons and without the loving ending.

If I can’t find something and I think there’s a possibility someone has used it recently, I immediately blame them, sort of assume that it’s their fault until they prove otherwise. It’s bad.

My grandma recently got a computer and she’s learning all about how to do e-mail. I’m proud of my grandma.

Oh that people would answer their phone when I call them. People can be so elusive for no good apparent reason.

But this brings up a point. A point named Jumping to Conclusions. We all know about this point, how it bites you. Let me, though, remind you once again. Get the facts—all of them or at least as many as possible—before making a decision on something.

Before you have the fact, that’s called an “uninformed” decision and this can end up being sort of unfortunate at best. Once you’ve done your homework, however, that’s called an “educated” or “informed” decision. Those are way better.

Operations Research. The essence of this field is taking complex organizational problems, reducing them to mathematical models, and solving them. Sounds sort of fun.

Harmony Rule #4: When chords have no common tone, the upper three voices must go in contrary motion to the movement of the bass.

Pretty self-explanatory. I think I explained this before, but when you’re moving from one chord to another, unless you have that common tone you’ve got to have contrary motion between the bass and the rest of the parts.

There’s this little boy, 11 years old, that has a Christmas song on the radio. Just an amazing voice. He must be the pop equivalent to Charlotte Church, or at least in that ballpark. His name is Nicholas Jonas.

So, wow, it doesn’t really sound like I thought much at all yesterday at work. I did some songwriting though, some of which I’m excited about. Songwriting rocks.

Luke 1:78-79: Through the tender mercy of our God; whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us, to give light to them that is in darkness and in the shadow of death, to guide our feet into the way of peace.

This is a beautiful, beautiful thought. Our Sunday School quarterly said that the idea of the “dayspring from on high” refers to the early morning sun rising over the mountains around Jerusalem.

So, just think about it. The world, cloaked in shadows for thousands of years, was about to be visited with a new, brilliant light. For millenia, people--even God's people--dimly groped for the glimmer of hope that they knew was there for them. And then the dayspring from on high changed all that. When Jesus was born, it was as if a new day had dawned on humanity. A brand new, brilliant day.

And as we were discussing this in Sunday School, the rain had stopped and the clouds parted enough for the sun to shine through, a glimmering reminder of this very fact.

I’m thinking of experimenting with a beard. Not that I like beards, generally I’m not a fan, so if I did it would be just to see what it was like, and I’m pretty sure it wouldn’t last very long. Maybe I’ll go back to the little scruff goatee thingy. Whatever.

No, no, I don't think so. A beard? Byran? Uh-uh. That's scary.

Maybe I’ll shift (vroom, vroom) into philosophical mode here in the next few weeks, as my days will partially be consumed with that bastion of intellectual stimulation, the pellet mill.

I’ll certainly read more.

The question is, if I have nothing to say, should I blog?

It’s like the old joke, if a tree falls in a forest and no one hears it, does it really make a noise? (answer: yes, by the way) Or if a woman is talking…remember that one?

I mean, I could go on about how fun skiing was today, because it was great. I could tell you about the guy that was boarding with speakers hanging out of him, jamming to his music on the way down. Or that Heidi cracks me up. Or that the Ducks lost or that my legs are tired. But why?

I can give you a parting shot of advice though: if you think of something brilliant, write it down!

Oh yeah, and some people on their blogs have this thing where they say what they’re listening to. Well, I’m listening to the Golden Gate Quartet.