Category: reflections

Taxes and giving

I need some help understanding something. Hopefully there are some folks out there that read this blog that can help me out.

I keep hearing folks who are mad and upset about the way Obama is spending their tax dollars. I heard similar things from the other side of the aisle when Bush was president. And I can understand that (from both sides).

But if you don’t like the way your tax dollars are being spent – why don’t you simply find a non-profit organization that you approve of and give your tax dollars to them instead?
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A new humanity in Christ

body of christ - http://www.flickr.com/photos/bemky/3220424667/

A while back I edited down a few minutes from one of Rob Bell’s message at Mars Hill. I refer back to it from time to time and have also added it in a semi-regular rotation on OrangeNoiseRadio.

The message comes from his series on Philippians and its always a great encouragement to me to just go back and listen to the 10 minutes or so that I edited down from the end of his message.
Continue reading A new humanity in Christ

Dying to preferences

Imagine living in a house with 20 people when you don’t enjoy entertaining people. Yikes!

The Generous Husband writes…

A few months ago my bride and I attended a meeting on “new monasticism” – living in intentional, multi-family groups. Yeah, that can be a commune in all the ugly ways, but it can also be something good. But I only mention it here because of something said to me by the man who owned the house in which we met. This fellow, a bit older than I, said he did not like entertaining – and I commented on how odd that was given that he regularly had a group of 20 or more in his home. He then said “I am learning to die to my preferences.”

I think that’s a lot of what we as followers of Christ are called to do.
Continue reading Dying to preferences

Taking photos in public

Thomas has an interesting take on taking photos of folks in public over on the nanolog — and specifically taking photos of the homeless.

I have no idea who the chap is in the pic nor do I have any thought as to why he considered it acceptable to photograph the Soup Van and the queue of folks waiting to be served.

I actually was quite blatant about taking the photo… but either he didn’t notice or didn’t care.

I found his behaviour rude and… if I am honest… rather dangerous.

We do not take photographs as a rule because we don’t want to put a barrier between us and the folks we serve… some of which would prefer not to have their photo taken.

He was rude because he didn’t ask… and he took a chance because he would have met with some strong opposition if he’d been spotted.

In hindsight… whilst I appreciate what he’s trying to do… it still seems wrong to me and probably explains why I prefer to take pictures of buildings or people I know. People need a choice….

People deserve the common courtesy to be asked whether or not they wish to have their photo taken. Not an easy task considering the number of folks present.

Continue reading Taking photos in public

July 2009 vacation photos

I’ve posted 250+ of my favorite photos from our vacation last week in the Bahamas.

You can view them here (click on the photo below)… or on Flickr or as a slideshow.

July 2009 Cruise to the Bahamas

Also, you can see the photos Laurie picked as her favorites on Flickr as well.

Returning home

Just a couple initial thoughts tonight, about our cruise…

We had a great time with our family — it made for a great trip. I even had a good time after my legs became the main topic of conversation — after my stank-nasty sunburn on Tuesday.

And unlike our last cruise – we hardly noticed the ship moving or rocking at all.

However, since we got off the ship this morning (around 9:30 am EST) I’ve continued having “motion moments” in which I turn or move a certain way and feel like I’m on a very rocky sea vessel — odd.

And finally — no matter how pampered we are on the cruise — Royal Caribbean still can’t beat the normal size of my toilet seat, the softness of my toilet paper, the average size of my shower and the softness (and length) of my own bed.

There’s still no place like home.