Priceless

American flag: $25
Gasoline $2
Cigarette Lighter $2.50

Catching yourself on fire because you're a terrorist nutball: PRICELESS

(sorry, but I just had to)

Never Look Down

Tell me something
That I don't already know
Tell me how you plan to change the world
I'm tired of people trying
To tell me what is right
I'm tired of people trying to pull me down
I know that you might never understand
The way I feel
I made a promise to myself
That I would never let it show
Never look down
Never look down
Just keep my focus straight ahead
And try to walk this line
Tell me all about your favorite human being
Tell me everything about yourself
God, the story is so terribly interesting
I wonder what's so good about myself
So let me take a good look at your perfect life
So I know just exactly how I don't want mine
Everyday I see these
Same four walls that keep me here
And I want to change the things that hurt
I want to end this constant fear
Never look down
Never look down
Keep my focus straight ahead
And try to walk this line

- "Velocity" by Face to Face

10 Suggestions

There are some things you just can't change. There will always be poor who need help. Being green with envy isn't healthy for anyone. Wanting a fling with your neighbors wife or husband is creepy. Not all sins are the same. There will always be self-promoters. Speaking God's holy name and making it common is more than bad taste. Wolves--people who call themselves 'friends' in sheeps clothing. Parents will always be parents. Gravity. Lazy people. Type A, driven overachievers.

And the winner is...

Well, I liked all your captions! You guys are hilarious!

I thought particularly funny were the 'crack of dawn', the 'crackhead mayor', and the 'warbler' suggestions.

lemme see, who should win the car....(gotta give mine away, since I've got a new one--and I'm lovin' it!)

this is too hard.

Caption this...

A good friend of mine sent me this picture he took in Kitchener-Waterloo.

Give me your best caption.

bleeding hearts

I was going to write something about this picture, but the more I look at it, the more I get irritated on so many levels. I am sick and tired of demonstrators. Have we ever stopped to wonder why we call them 'demonstrators'? They're demonstrating how to be idiots. They're demonstrating how to stir up controversy and never really do anything worthwhile for their cause...that's because they're just ....DEMONSTRATING. In this city you could see a 'demonstration' every day of the week. What's your concern? What's your cause? What makes you upset and self-righteous? Seals? Poor? Education? Transportation? Speech? War? Meditation? You name it, you can join a 'demonstration'.
Here's a hint for all you would-be demonstrators... try demonstrating to yourself that you can act as a responsible citizen and effect change in your own life first, then talk to us about your cause in a normal tone. Put your flags and your banners away...(do you honestly think anyone is actually paying attention to your little parade?)
Oh yeah, and when you're demonstrating...can ya stay off the roads!! I've got places to go and people to see.

thanks

Easter

More than bunnies and chocolate, Easter is about bread and wine. Bread and wine, not for filling our stomachs and getting bombed, but for remembering and, if we're fortunate, for thoughtful celebration. The old Christmas carol is amiss (what else is new!) when it says, "And man shall live forevermore because of Christmas day." Sentimental and touching as the stable birth was, it certainly isn't the crux of the drama of redemption or the hope of future union with God. Easter seals the deal. Jesus' story until then is significant no doubt, but after his undeserved torture, ruthless murder and miraculous resurrection, it became supernatural. Death was defeated. Hope no longer dwelt in the camp of unrealistic expectations, and paradise was opened.

"Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well, but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out."

Václav Havel, Disturbing the Peace

TOAST!!

Whether we're speaking of the past or the present (likely the future too), the OIL always comes out ahead. Perhaps this off season the canucks will finally make some changes
(hint: Bert's a bum!)


Hail the mighty Oilers of Edmonton! Hail the franchise with heart! Hail the organization that supplies quality players to all the other teams to keep the NHL interesting!

We will win ANOTHER cup before the nucks win their FIRST!

HAIL!

Upcomig DVD releases...

In the land of the blind, a one-eyed man is King

The 'other' Dr. Phil

You don't need Oprah's permission to blame it on anybody but yourself.

Git yer ass in gear

One of these days we're going to hurt someone

What is this?

Livin' on the Edge

I've been reading a fantastic little book by David Adam called Walking the Edges: Living in the Presence of God. He combines story, spiritual reflection, poems and prayers in a journey to the borderlands, the place inhabited by Christians willing to extend themselves in adventurous living for the sake of love. This is a wonderful book that draws on the stories of St Martin, St Ninian, St Patrick, St Oswald and St Cuthbert.

Here is a quote:

There is no place where God is not to be found. If you banish God from your life or even a portion of it, you cease to deal with reality or with the true depths of the world and your own being. Any true perspective of the world needs to acknowledge mystery and awe. We may not want to put conventional names to our awareness, because such names have been greatly misused, but the reality is still there. To deny mystery and awe any entry into our lives is to impoverish ourselves, and the world around us. There is a great joy in being able to awaken to the presence. Life becomes so much richer if we discover that we dwell in God and he is in us. Patrick would have understood the words of Julian of Norwich that are so hard to understand by many today: 'You are more in heaven than on earth.' If this is not part of our experience, is it not because we have ceased to keep up a vital relationship with our creator, redeemer and sustainer? We have so many wonderful things we can do in this world [or seemingly worthy causes] we are always tempted to forget that our God seeks a relationship with us. God is not a Sunday exercise, nor a recreational option, God is life and health: God is not for debate or analysis, or to be proved; God is to be encountered and to be known.

Attention Students: Having a good time is hereby forbidden!

An Australian state plans to ban students from wearing denim because it is linked with having a good time.

'It is associated with weekend wear, with recreational time. It's just unacceptable at schools and we are trying to lift the standards,' a spokesman for Western Australia state Education Minister Ljiljanna Ravlich said.

The ban on denim in Western Australia's secondary schools will be imposed from 2007.
............
It's comforting somehow to know that all the nuts running schools aren't in Canada.

Note: The principal at the school I work at is nothing like Mr. Ravlich...thank God!

Saying one thing, doing another

I am sometimes amazed at what is often attributed to God's will. From time to time I hear people say, "God led me to the perfect job", or "He guided me to a great partner". Neither a job nor relationships are bad things, but what strikes me as incongruent is what isn't said. The person who mistreats others, only to be "led to the right partner", is kidding themselves. If someone severs friendships, makes accusations, lives self-righteously, then quips, "God opened the door to this great job", they've completely misunderstood God. God's will is not in contradiction to his character. It would be like saying, "God's given me such a better life now that I've aborted my pregnancy". That's absurd! It's when we are interested in His life, His character, His truth, His way of treating people that we are guided. And if God is truth, peace, love, compassion, justice, gentleness, relationship, we ought not think that we are receiving guidance from Him to our latest lackey or stimulant if we doggedly betray those characteristics in our own life. God's will does not come to those who flagrantly snub His character in order to get the candy. The only thing that's REALLY happening in that scenario is the recreating of God in our image.