Inside My Mind

Great Sabbath today. Two worship services (traditional and contemporary) with an afternoon of rest and recharging for the week. Our main floor furnace is out, so it has been rather chilly here. We have a couple of space heaters that help, but there is still a chill in the air (8 degrees this morning) that is slightly uncomfortable. Given the tragedies throughout the world, our little inconvenience will not generate complaints from me. It will, however, make me reconsider future travel plans. Give me heat any day. Today's sermon(s) got me to thinking. When God calls me by name, will I respond with "Huh?", or will I be ready to respond with "Yes, here I am"? Too many times, I think I respond too casually to an opportunity He gives me. I know He has plans and opportunities for me, but my selfishness comes between my plans and His. I need to listen more to what He wants from me. I know when He calls, He will be calling me at my "Isaac". He will want me t...

I love to look at snow. The blanket on the ground before being contaminated with car, human, or animal tracks is simply gorgeous. The photographer in me wants to get up early, get out and capture some of the beauty of freshly fallen snow through morning light.  There was a time in my life when I loved cold weather. I would hike, work, or play outdoors no matter how cold it got. However, that time has passed by me. Now, I can't stay warm enough. I don't want to be anywhere under 65 degrees. And this creates a problem trying to reconcile shooting in the snow and the need to stay warm.  I guess until it can snow at 65 degrees, I'll have to limit my photo shoots to those from car windows. 

For those who know me best, you understand that I am a creature of habit. I get up at 4:45 am, have coffee, read, study, get ready for work, make rounds, go to the office, come home, eat, exercise, watch a little TV, sleep and repeat the cycle. Even on vacation, I get up early. Don't mess with my mornings. Junior High swim practice has humbled me. Having to drive Colin to the YMCA at 5:45 completely messes up my schedule. So..... I'm trying something new. I'm trying to run in the mornings. This may not seem like much to most people, but to me this is a big deal. It's like learning to drive on the left side of the road. Or maybe like throwing a ball with my left hand. Or secretly hoping (gulp!) Kentucky wins its next basketball game. All of these go against my grain. But I'm sure that God has something planned for me. I just don't know what it is. I hope that it is one way to help me focus on balancing my life. I tend to get a little skewed, focusing on one as...

Last night, I had the opportunity to take my 16-year-old daughter on her first car date. We had a wonderful time talking and laughing. She has become such a beautiful young lady with an ever-growing mind and spirit that I sometimes forget to enjoy. It's wonderful to be able to carry on an adult conversation with your offspring. My mother had always said that she enjoyed her children much more as adults than as little ones. I am beginning to see what she means.  When I first asked Katie to let me take her out, I got the teenager eye-roll and the impression that she was too cool to be seen with me. However, I later learned from anonymous adults that she was actually excited about our night. We started with me parking in the driveway, walking to the door, talking to her mother (telling her our plans), and then we walked to the car. She even spontaneously took my arm and let me open the door for her. On the way to dinner, our plans changed and she said, "Let me call my mother and...

I find it difficult to keep my mind off the crisis in Haiti. It is difficult to go on with 'business as usual' when so many people are suffering so much. The way media brings these events into our homes has somewhat dulled our senses to catastrophes. We fail to realize that this could happen here. It could be us. Don't get me wrong- I'm a huge NFL fan (go Colts!) and want to go ahead with life as if nothing happened. I want to put the people of Haiti on my prayer list, send a little money, send a relief basket, and wake up tomorrow thinking I have done enough. But how should I respond to a national disaster, even if it is not in my own country? 'Then    Mephibosheth the  son of Saul came down to meet the king; and  he had neither  cared for his feet, nor trimmed his mustache, nor  washed his clothes, from the day the king departed until the day he came home in peace.' (2 Samuel 19:24) Mephebosheth, the grandson of King Saul (and son of Jonathan), kne...

It seems like yesterday that our 9-week premature 3+ pound daughter was struggling for breath under an oxygen hood in the neonatal ICU. Today, she turned 16 and all the fears dads have came with the birthday. She has been through driver's education, has her own car, and drives fairly safely with me. But what will she do when she is on her own. She can start to date on her own now, too. Her boyfriend is at a college visit this weekend, so her first 'date' will be with me. I want to show her how a boy should treat her and hope she isn't ashamed to be seen with me. She may not want to go out with me now, but I hope that she looks back someday and says, "That was cool". But again, what will she do when she is on her own. I pray for her wisdom and safety, as well as my patience and assurance that God holds her tighter than I ever could. Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

As I sit here in a warm home, my belly full, my children in bed, my comfort devices all working---I can't help but think about the people in Haiti. Many without a place to sleep, nothing to eat, no fresh water, no sanitary living conditions at all. What I feel is not guilt, but rather shame. I am ashamed that I am not more active in supporting relief efforts. I am ashamed that it takes something in our part of the world to bring recognition to conditions people share throughout the world. I am ashamed that my previous response to such a catastrophe is to pray for those effected. My prayer should be for the people stricken. And those involved in rescue efforts. And those who organize relief efforts. And those who contribute money and skills to the relief efforts. But most of all, I pray that my heart and mind may be led by the Holy Spirit of the Living God to be made more acutely aware of how I can actively help this and like situations. I am complacent, comfortable, lazy, and selfi...

The fol lowing  was written by Ben Stein and recited by him on  CBS Sunday  Morning   Commentary.. My confession: I am a Jew, and every single one of my  ancestors was Jewish.  And it does not  bother me even a little bit when people call  those beautiful lit up, bejeweled trees,  Christmas trees.  I don't feel threatened.   I don't feel discriminated against. That's  what they are, Christmas trees. It  doesn't bother me a bit when people say, 'Merry  Christmas' to me.  I don't think they are  slighting me or getting ready to put me in a  ghetto.  In fact, I kind of like it .  It shows that  we are all brothers and sisters celebrating this  happy time of year. It doesn't bother me at all  that there is a manger scene on display at a key  intersection near my beach house in Malibu .   If people want a creche, it's just as fine  with me as i...

I'm not really sure how I want to do this 'blogging' thing. Part of me wants to be random. Part of me wants to journal. Part of me wants to communicate. Part of me wants to vent. Part of me wants to test the waters of thought as I bounce ideas off an invisible wall. I guess we'll see how this works out. The most important thing I learned today involves prayer. It's not about knowing how to pray. It's about being in a spirit of perpetual prayer. The Holy Spirit takes our willingness to pray and communicates that to the Father who responds to us with His blessings. I don't have to pray perfectly for God to hear me. In fact, He hears me perfectly when I just pray.

OK. Now I know. The 24-hour bug going around lasts less than 24 hours. It's the recovery that takes a while. After the worst gastrointestinal symptoms (you know which ones I mean) left, the weakness and fatigue seems to stay around for a while. After 6 hours of 'the bad stuff', I have now had almost 3 days of no appetite and the resulting weakness from lack of calories. This is despite 2 liters of IV fluids. I'm not sure I really want to eat. To make matters worse, I have been on-call for the past 2 days. Having to take care of people (some who are not as sick as you are) creates a bit of a challenge.  But I really think the worst part of it is having to feed the caffeine addiction without worsening the GI symptoms. Maybe it's time to wean off the caffeine.

I bought my wife (Gena) a remote car starter for Christmas. I thought it would be nice for her to walk into her office in the evening, hit the remote, and then be able to walk out to a warm car. This works well on these 10 degree nights. I also thought (selfishly) that if she like it, she would tell me to have one put on my Equinox. I was talking to Brett Wilson (our car dealer) who said that he thought my car already had one installed. He walked back to my office, took my key fob, and started my car from the office. I have been getting into a cold car for the past several weeks, not realizing I already had a remote starter. It could have been worse. I had planned to drop off my car at the dealership for installation. They could have charged me and I would have never known that I had it all along. Laughs on me.

Here we are. After 3-4 days of anticipation of the Great Blizzard of 2010, watching the snow come down. It started a little later than expected. Now it seems like it's tapering off. I don't think we'll get that much more. It's amazing how people call in asking for prescriptions to be called in to the pharmacy. They can get to the pharmacy, but the can't make it in to the office (2 blocks away). Anyway, be safe out there.

Chapter 1: What Is Science? - Answers in Genesis Posted using ShareThis