Newton

I Asked The Lord

1. I asked the Lord that I might grow
In faith and love and every grace
Might more of His salvation know
And seek more earnestly His face

2. Twas He who taught me thus to pray
And He I trust has answered prayer
But it has been in such a way
As almost drove me to despair

3. I hoped that in some favored hour
At once He'd answer my request
And by His love's constraining power
Subdue my sins and give me rest

4. Instead of this He made me feel
The hidden evils of my heart
And let the angry powers of Hell
Assault my soul in every part

5. Yea more with His own hand He seemed
Intent to aggravate my woe
Crossed all the fair designs I schemed,
Cast out my feelings, laid me low

6. Lord why is this, I trembling cried
Wilt Thou pursue thy worm to death?
"Tis in this way" The Lord replied
"I answer prayer for grace and faith"

7. "These inward trials I employ
From self and pride to set thee free
And break thy schemes of earthly joy
That thou mayest seek thy all in me,
That thou mayest seek thy all in me."

The Earth

"In 2003, 25 percent more natural resources were used than the Earth could sustainably replenish." This according to the World Wildlife Fund, in their 2006 semi-annual report on the state of the natural world. At this rate, "eventually [by 2050], ecological assets, such as forests and fisheries will be harvested at such a degree that they might disappear altogether."

"Another indicator of the strain on natural ecosystems is the decline of about one-third observed in more than 1,300 vertebrate species around the world between 1970 and 2003."

The U.S. and the United Arab Emirates is tied at first place for per-capita ecological natural resource consumption.

So what do we do with reports like these?

Laugh them off as being produced by tree-hugging liberals? Ignore them and go back to our dinners (rough quote from Hotel Rwanda)? Trust that God is sovereign and whatever is happening in and with the world is timely and planned? Discipline ourselves to be good stewards of that which has been given us? Any of the above? None of the above?

Sadly, most Americans probably answer the first question, while maintaining the attitude of, "who the hell cares, if I can afford it (it being gas for a huge truck, perhaps, or 5 styorophome cups for one day's coffee at work) than I'm going to get it, and noonesgonnastopme."

No wonder most of the world hates us.

The US population hit 300,000,000 (that's 300 million, for the layman) last week. Projections show that we'll hit 400 million by 2045. And that's just the US population. Don't forget about China, India, the Middle East, etc.

I've posted the following quote before, but I'm posting it again..."the average human being in the world, non-American, consumes on average 1.8 acres of agricultural product every year. The average American... 27 acres."

That's ridiculous. But I'm afraid it won't ever change...unless something catastrophic takes place, or economic depression hits home.

Who knows. I may be way off here, but this really frustrates me. What if our lack of good stewardship with the Earth and its resources on a micro, daily life basis, is sinful? If so, I for one have a lot to repent of.

NE = New England = one of the 50 states

So I listen to xm satellite radio when I'm at work sometimes and I was listening to the cinemagic channel, which is the one that just plays movie soundtracks. This morning's selections were To Kill a Mockingbird, The Last of the Mohicans, and About a Boy. It was a very pleasant morning.

Anyway, the host of the channel comes on to talk for a minute about what else is going to be played this morning and he says the following (I couldn't believe it):
"Our next request is for The Shawshank Redemption and it comes from Lincoln...you know what, I'm not very good at state abbreviations...N-E, N-E...I think it comes from Lincoln, New England...I didn't know there was a city named Lincoln in New England."

So I guess the abbreviation NE is for the state of New England, apparently not for Nebraska. I would think that people would know of the great city of Lincoln, Nebraska...but I guess they just know of the great state of New England.

The other day when I was in New York, I was on the subway reading the NY Post and one of the articles was about the movie that came out in Canada, I believe, about an assassination of President Bush. Later on in the article he talked about the Timothy McVeigh 1995 federal building bombing in Kansas City.

It angered me.

Thoughts?

I was reading a friend of mine's blog, and even though this may be blog-illegal, I'd love to hear some feedback as to what he wrote below:

"I spent my teenage years in a high school youth group, and although I look back on the experience fondly, I can't help but feel like it short-changed a lot of kids. The church was UMC, and the congregation (in hindsight) had a strong evangelical/fundamentalist pull. As a result, the primary thing you learned in the youth group were variations on 1) don't do drugs/drink/listen to secular music, 2) don't have premarrital sex, and 3) witness to your friends so that if they die tomorrow in a car accident or the rapture comes, they won't go to hell.

The problem as I now see it is that, if you spend your formative years learning that this is what Christianity is about, where does that leave you as an adult when these three issues are no longer relevant, or only nominally so? You're never given a theological framework for years 19 and beyond.

Based on my own experiences, some people coming out of this background have looked deeper. Others have gone on to megachurches that offer a similar, simplistic theology for adults (don't cheat on your wife, witness to your co-wokers so they won't go to hell, 5 step sin-management sermons). But a lot have just said hell with it all, not because they were psyochologically abused in a fundamentalist environment, but because they don't think Christianity has any more to offer."

Thoughts? (and I realize this is risky for me, because what if no one replies at all? How embarrassing.)

Not the Opera...the Oprah

That handsome devil on Oprah's left arm (your right) is none other than yours truly. I can't believe I haven't posted this already. My friend's wedding reception was one of the ones she crashed in Tulsa a couple months ago. The Opera show is flying him and his wife up to Chicago to be on the show tomorrow. It will air next Wednesday, Oct. 11th. The Opera show interviewed me at the reception too, so I may be on at that time as well. Maybe they'll get a new car or something...or an apology. We'll see.

Click on the picture itself to make it larger.

Fat/Sugar-free Baloney

The title of this post rhymes...that's great.

I don't buy fat-free/sugar-free foods. Why? I'll just cut to the point. I think that all the chemicals (aspartame, nutra-sweet, or other "fake" sugar/fat crap) they put into the fat/sugar-free vanilla wafers, perhaps, are worse for you than the actual sugar/fat. Crystal-lite lemonade? More like lemon flavored poison. Fat-free oreos? I call them chemical cookies.

Think about it. The product has to taste good somehow, or no one would buy it. BUT...if the product has the light-green (usually) graphic that says "fat free" on it, we automatically think it's better for us. Not me, my friend, not me. I see right through the graphics. Did you know that most of the packaged or processed food you eat is flavored by artificial flavors anyway? That's probably not all that surprising. Factories, such as Hostess, or Little Debbie, or Nabisco, have huge rooms full of little bottles filled with flavors, and smells. Each product is flavored or given an odor by an exact formula. A few drops of this, a few drops of that. It's true.

This post is kind of tied into my "Tears and Enriched Milk" post, minus the part about the crying children...that was stupid.

So...the next time you're looking for a fat/sugar-free snack, remember...all the chemicals and flavors they put into the twinkie to make the twinkie actually taste good minus the sugar and the fat is far worse for you than the actual sugar or fat. My great-grandmother just died at the age of 96. She grew up on a farm and drank whole milk and real butter her whole life. I think it will be interesting to see how our generation passes away when we come of age. Maybe we'll all die of weird cancers or conditions because all of our food is laced with weird chemicals and sweeteners. Remember margerine? Everyone thought it was better for you than butter, but it then came out about 3 years ago that it's about 5 times as bad for you than butter because it has all that weird transfat and additives in it and is pumped with chemicals. Furthermore, the FDA banned the sale of cyclamate (a popular artificial food attitive) in 1970 after lab tests indicated that large amounts of cyclamates caused bladder cancer in rats. Yummie.

All I'm saying is...what if? Bring on the fat and sugar (in moderate portions, of course). My body can actually process you. But it can't process aspartame. Aspartame, sure enough, causes brain tumors in rats. Sucralose (another popular highly used sweetener) is a modified sugar compound that is about 600 times as sweet as sugar. Sometimes I wonder what something like that does to my nice, pink insides.

If you read this, consider yourself sugar/fat-free informed.