Blame Canada

Old Folks Week, #2
(your caption here)

The part that's supposed to be easy? That's where Mr. Murphy shows up. And boy, did he make an appearance in my world.

I spent almost all day yesterday making new front sides for the drawer carcasses and glued on the painted drawer faces. Brought them in last night to install them. One of ten fit. The rest were all too wide. They'd go halfway in and then bind up.
Pastors shouldn't say the words that best expressed my thoughts at that point.
I cut the new front sides the same size as the old ones, or so I thought. When I measured to figure out the problem I discovered that they were 1/16th to 1/8th wider, and that put them beyond the limit. Now what?
I was up at 2 a.m. turning it over and over in my mind. By 7 a.m. I'd decided the only solution was to create a recess in the sides so the rails could sit inboard. So I spent today making all that happen. The drawers are all now in place with their handles installed. All they need is a finish coat of paint. Well, except for the three doors which I measured incorrectly. So tomorrow I have to make new faces for them, paint and install.

The good news? That rental job this morning provided a pleasant break because it just needed a fresh roll of plumber's putty under the basket.

I saw Sect. of Transportation Ray LaHood interviewed on the news tonight about the continuing problems with Toyotas. Twice he said, "We will not sleep until...." He certainly doesn't mean that literally. But what does he mean?
I'm not so impressed with "Stop driving it - oh wait..." LaHood.

Facebook is NOT working. No new posts in hours. Really?

I listened to the "Traditional Gospel" channel on Pandora while I worked this morning. That's one of my favorite channels. I heard a song that stopped me in my tracks. Went directly to iTunes and bought it. Now I'm trying to decide if we should sing it Sunday.
"We Gonna Have a Good Time" by Bishop Leonard Scott.
Very, very good.

I know a guy who is a senior at ASU. He's a believer, born and raised in Africa. He invited me to join in a FB conversation with some of his friends about the issue of life emerging from inanimate matter. I haven't posted anything, but it has been interesting to read the conversation with what seem to be other ASU students, some believers and some very opposed to Christianity. The more they go back and forth the more convinced I am to do nothing more than read. Conversations like this - which quickly changed into a discussion about evolution vs. creationism - almost always generate more heat than light. And there's no shortage of hubris in this discussion.

Reading college students, clearly bright college students, go back and forth about evidence for the existence and actions of God reminded me of a conversation I had Sunday with a visitor at Pathway. I had made a reference in my lesson to the miracles in Genesis, and included the Noahic flood as an example. The visitor talked with me afterward about an article she'd read explaining how all the water necessary for the event existed in the world as it was at that time.

I told her I feel no need to explain signature events in Scripture using natural processes. In fact, I think it's a dangerous and risky proposition. As soon as I use science to explain creation, the flood, the plagues etc. we place ourselves within the confines of empirical science. We play on their field, by their rules. The whole "creation science" movement (and its versions on the flood, etc.) places its adherents at the mercy of scientific discoveries and scientific advances. As soon as a guy in a lab coat proves that it couldn't have happened the way the Christian scientist says it did, we're toast.

Our God is a God of miracles. Yes, he often works within the laws of the universe he created. But to argue that his greatest works can be explained by natural processes forgets that he is outside of nature, not bound by those laws.

So is the whole science and the Bible movement a trap? Does it effectively deny a God greater than nature? And perhaps equally as troubling, does it represent a combination of hubris and foolishness - hubris in thinking we can grasp & explain the works of God, and foolishness as we try to win the world through fine sounding arguments instead of the power of the Holy Spirit? (see 1 Cor. 2:1-5)