I got home about 4:00 last night, 22 hours after leaving Phoenix. It was NOT a fun drive. I spent more time sleeping in rest stops and parking lots than I usually do and fought sleepiness too much of the time. I only ate one "meal" - a McD's hamburger as I drove. The rest of the time I drank way too much Diet Coke and munched on cookies and chips to stay awake. Not good for the digestive system, a reality I'm facing already today (it's 5:30 a.m.). I hope that a day of healthy eating will put me back on track.
On the way down I listened to a collection of short stories from books on sea-fairing. On the way home the collection was short stories from the detective mystery genre. They weren't good, either in story line or readers, the lone exception being the Sherlock Holmes stories (all three of them). I gave up after about 10 stories and switched to local radio stations I found as I drove up the CA central valley. In the dark. Which only adds to the already nearly intolerable boredom of that stretch of road.
The barn is a mess. It's overdue for a cleaning but we're going to get 1.3" of rain today and another 1/2" of rain every day through Saturday. The barn will wait until at least tomorrow.
Creek's gonna rise.
If you've ever driven mountain roads you've seen those "truck run-off" ramps filled with loose gravel to stop semis that have lost their brakes.
Coming through the passes in No. CA. and So. OR. I saw a truck on one of those ramps. They were in the process of getting it out.
I can't imagine the fear that must take over a driver of a big rig suddenly without brakes. How long does it take for his heart rate to return to normal?
I know several people who are angry - furious - at society because of its gross immorality and evil. They're not necessarily (!) those Trumpians who feel their America has been taken away from them; some are legitimately angry at the evil and the evil people who are driving the descent.
Have you ever had a bird poop on your head? I have and it's a terrible experience that only gets worse.
First the bird poops on your head. But then you reach up to see what that feeling on the top of your head was and put your hand in wet bird poop, smearing it around in your hair while also coating your hand with the stuff. Now getting it off your hand and out of your hair is harder. Plus, your hand is absolutely worthless until it's washed free of that disgusting goop.
Trust me: you do not know a bird bomb until you've received one from a seagull.
You can imagine some of the things said to the responsible bird. Forget poetic niceties about the birds that wing their way through the heavens. That bird's going straight to hell where he'll be tormented for eternity.
Why? He's a bird.
He's a living organism that, like all living organisms, ingests, digests, and egests (poops). A bird does all of that instinctively and neither wills nor controls the time and place of his egestion. Even more, he has no awareness that he's pooped mid-flight. If you could stop and ask him about it he'd have no recollection he'd launched a bomb of grossness. That your head happened to be at the precise point where his poop landed has more to do with the sentient and volitional being walking through the park than the bird.
Yet we curse the bird.
As we curse the culture that does what is its nature. The Bible predicts this behavior from citizens of a world pushed along by the prince, the power of the air who opposes everything righteous and pleasing to God. We hate those who, totally unaware of the moral dimension of life, do what is natural to them.
Is it possible to hate the evil and love the evil-doer?
Yes, but it's very hard.
Yet it's what the gospel calls us to do, especially if we're to win them for the gospel.
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