I just used the last garbage bag from a box Josh bought at Sam's Club when we first got married. I guess we're an old couple now.
We got a phone call from Josh's brother Jon a few days ago announcing that he is engaged to Shanda
the sweetest and most long-suffering woman on the planet. They will be married in October. I now nominate them to be the first of our generation in the immediate family to have children.
Seriously, congratulations, kids! Now we only have my brother and Josh's sister Sarah left. Maybe they should marry one another.
I was searching for recipes with our new favorite sauce, Sriracha, as a main ingredient. Curious, I searched for sriracha poetry while I was at it. I was disappointed. Where are the websites dedicated to its hot, peppery redness? Where the passionate odes to its versatility (just as good on hamburgers as on pad thai)? In the spirit of encouraging my fellow man to take advantage of this, as yet, untapped source of inspiration, I hereby announce a Waltondammerung contest. The writer of the best poem about sriracha will get to go on a tour of the manufacturing plant if he or she comes to visit us.
Disclaimers: Offer only good if we're actually allowed in the plant. You might just get to drive by and see the outside, but that should be enough. Seriously, it's right down the road. Mmmm... who can resist the thought of vats and vats of the tasty redness?
I was thinking about what to do for fun when my parents come out to visit this July. As I was thinking, I opened the refrigerator to find the can of whipped cream they bought when they were here last July. Guess I can check grocery shopping off the list.
This is a good quote from Glenn Parkinson, who was interviewed by WORLD magazine.
"The mainline church has lost its general moral influence by ignoring repentance when reaching out to neighbors pursuing unbiblical lifestyles. But evangelicals have lost influence just as badly by ignoring redemptive grace in our public discourse, calling for repentance in the public arena without simultaneously lifting up the grace of Christ. The fact is, people simply cannot change without grace. To change society, we must always proclaim the balanced gospel message of human repentance and divine grace."
This is in response to my mom's comment on Bad Hillsdalian (Part I). Here's an excerpt:
"However, to say that it is political rabble-rousing that has generated anti-Christian hostility is patently false. That is a straw man raised every time a Christian has on opinion, but if you read Luke 4, you find that the folks in Nazareth turned their opinions about Christ on a dime, and he was not talking politics. The same is true in Acts - all the Christians were held in high esteem early on, but it wasn't not long at all until Stephen was stoned."
I think I will probably be writing parts III, IV, V, VI, etc, to this post, but I would first like to point out that I am not too concerned, when I write these things, about what non-Christians think of Christians. While political rabble-rousing might raise the ire of those who do not follow Christ, it's not as though there are many things we can do that would endear us to the world. We carry the fragrance of Christ, and to the perishing, we are the "aroma of death". Probably not pleasant.
I am concerned, conversely, about how we view non-Christians. What is a Christ-like approach to dealing with non-Christians? When they insist on laws that are in direct conflict with biblical principles, do we see them as opponents to our "right" to live in a society that outwardly conforms to a biblical worldview or as sinners who, like us, cannot even hope to do anything right without the molding, shaping, and pruning of the Holy Spirit?
There are certainly political issues that Christians can and should fight for. It seems to me, however, that the mentality of the Moral Majority and groups like it has gotten a little out of hand, and our attitude toward non-Christians is one instance of how it is hurting our purpose and identity as Christians. When we see the political arena as Christianity's primary point of influence on the world, we run the risk of seeing non-Christians only as foes and not, as MacArthur put it, the mission field. No constitutional amendment against homosexual marriage will save a single soul. Which leaves one to wonder why many Christians fight for it so hard. It's not going to make the country any more moral in actuality.
I suppose some people would argue that the current Christian political movement is driven by a love of godly righteousness or, more often, that we have a duty to fight for our right to exercise our religion. If any act of injustice or flagrant rebellion against God's Word ever warranted anger and insurrection against ungodly authority, the crucifixion the Son of God would be it. Yet when Christ was reviled, beaten, and crucified, He prayed for forgiveness for His own persecutors. Still, for some reason, we feel obligated to rally the troops when someone so much as tries to teach evolution in schools or removing the Ten Commandments from public places. Like Peter drawing his sword in the garden, our motives may be well-intentioned, but our actions are often misdirected. Casting our struggle in political terms allows Christians to paint the non-Christian world with the broad brush of "anti-Christianity" and to seek political solutions that will white-wash the entire country with the equally broad (and spiritually weak) stripe of "pro-Christian morality". Doing so encourages Christians to forsake addressing the real daily problems of real people in our lives for the easier tactic of moralizing the country while evangelizing no one.
In the next episode... I will consider whether, when we fight for political causes, we are actually fighting for the freedom to exercise our Christian beliefs.
My baby brother sent this my way.
Behold, the Caesar's Bath meme! List five things that people in your circle of friends or peer group are wild about, but you can't really understand the fuss over. To use the words of Caesar (from History of the World Part I), "Nice. Nice. Not thrilling . . . but nice."
1. Coach purses These purses were supposedly made popular because they are the cheap, flashier, more individualistic alternative to Prada. Since when is $250 a cheap purse? I could find you something even flashier for $3 at Big Lots of "flashier than Prada" is what you're going for. Apparently Coach got a kick start on its popularity in Japan. Thanks a lot, Will. I blame you, since you live there and you have a man purse that is.. not... Coach... or Prada... Anyway, I'll stick with my $40 sack from the kiosk in the mall. (That's an upgrade from the $10 purses I had to replace three or four times a year because they kept falling apart.)
2. TV. Don't have it. Don't miss it. Don't ask me if I've seen the latest episode of the Bachelorette or the OC, because I haven't.
3. Socialism. It doesn't get you Prada bags. Oh wait.
4. Primping. If I spend more than 5 minutes in front of the mirror in the morning, I didn't sleep in long enough. I guess I can appreciate what it does for some people, but I've never known how to do the stuff well enough for it to make much of a difference in my own appearance. So, why bother?
5. Blogs that are basically just lists of links to stuff. I suppose it's like being a critic in that you're filtering and evaluating media for other people. Except that it's more like the way that a movie theatre marquee is like a critic because it lets you know what's out there so you don't have to find out for yourself. List-blogs even give their own equivalent of the MPAA rating seen on theatre marquees, such as "Not Safe for Work" or "Funny".
I pass this meme along to Josh, who hasn't posted anything since January. A good opportunity to rant is always just the thing to get those creative juices flowing.