RE:think

Jesus was and is a Radical

I've been thinking about Jesus, as we who follow him should do often. And I have to say, It's not easy wrapping my mind around who he was while he was here some 2000 years ago.

We've all heard that Jesus was a radical. And that is true. I've heard it from tree hugging  liberals as well as Bible thumping fundies. And both camps, in my opinion, are correct.

But neither camp get his radical nature completely right. I'd guess none of us could fully get it right. That's a tall order. That said, I would think we could get it close or at the very least try to.

The bottom line is that no matter the form his radicalism takes, I am not nearly up to par as a follower. To use a poker term, I find myself folding way to often when it comes to his teachings and his commands to love God and love others. All of which are pretty radical when compared to conventional wisdom.

I realize this is all pretty scatter brain, but I plan to feel this out a little and maybe post some thoughts here. It's a facet of him that I don't think about nearly enough. Feel free to post some of your favorite examples of him being a radical in the comments. Maybe we can talk about them here.

OK Honey, OK!!!

Evette said it was past time for me to post again. So here I am.

I have slowed it down purposely the last couple of weeks as I get the political crap out of my system. I don't want to post about that stuff anymore. I was getting too wrapped up in it. Then I finally remembered that it really does not matter in the end. Neither guy is a savior and neither will completely ruin us. So why stress, right? So don't expect anymore of those posts. Hopefully. :) If either do anything stupid, like this I might for comedy's sake:

Did I Mention I Like to Play Poker?

Count this as one of those posts that warns you of future posts...

I love playing poker, Texas Holdem', specifically. Don't worry, I play in a league that goes for points and bragging rights and not money. I am a responsible Husband and Father of four. I'm not gambling away my money. Our President and Congress have that taken care of anyway.

But I love the game. You've read posts here about how much I love sports and competition. Being on the other side of 35 and having a family, I had lost the outlet of competition. Not a lot of regular sports leagues out there for the older dudes. The poker league fills the void nicely. Plus I don't have to worry about getting hurt, that is unless I'm playing with my buddy Ernie (we've been in this league for about a year now) and old guys are making him angry.

Sure, there is some luck involved in the game, and playing with horrible players enhances that to some degree. But I do find that there is a good deal of skill involved and that breeds some great competition. This is especially true when you hit the table with 9 other good players. Not saying I am great or anything, but I think I am at least decent. I don't do anything half way ya know.

Another plus has been the friends I've made that I'd otherwise never have met. You can never have too many good friends and/or acquaintances.

So here's a warning, I may post about poker from time to time in the future. Hopefully the stories will be at least a tad amusing. Probably not as amusing as some of Ernie's, but oh well. Be sure and read this post by Ern. He talks about our yet to be co-written book, Poker Jackassery. :)

Oh yeah, the league has a web site if you want to check it out. Click here.

Obama: As Smart as Billed?

I am nearly convinced this guys is not as smart as billed. (uh oh!!! I guess I'm a racist now!) Whether you agree with the war or not, want the troops home or not, it's a no brainer that the surge worked and was the right thing to do at the time. I didn't like it at the time and said it was a bad idea. I stand corrected. We are closer to being out of Iraq because of it.

For Obama to continue down the road of saying that it wasn't the right thing to do and giving the "Sunni Awakening" top billing over the American Soldier in decreasing violence is idiotic. (and he always sticks that in there when critiquing the surge) It is not helping him at all. Why does he think the "Sunni Awakening" happened?!?!?

Here he is with Katie Couric. She gives him multiple chances to say the right (smart) thing. But he either thinks he's brighter than everyone else and buys the messiah hype he is getting, or he's just plain stupid. (racist alert!)

 

Technorati Tags: Obama,Troop Surge

Link: Obama stands by plan to talk with Iran - CNN.com.

Birthday Cake

Out to Lunch With Birthday Boy!

It's Riley's birthday! He's five years old.

Tangible Kingdom

I found this video via Frank via Grace. I really want to read this book now. This video gets to the heart of what I'd like my family to experience as it applies to both church and The Church. It's very powerful. Here is the description that goes with the video:

Watch as a normal God-searching man finds hope, as he sees a glimpse of the kingdom in a community of friends, around a table, and everywhere he goes.

Obama in Iraq on the Surge

Terry Moran interviewd Barack Obama in the past couple of days and here is a very interesting tid bit that has surfaced in advance of the full intervew being aired.

Q: If you had to do it over again, knowing what you know now, would you support the surge?

Obama: No. Because, keep in mind that —

Q: You wouldn’t?

Obama: Keep in mind, these kind of hypotheticals are very difficult. You know hindsight is 20/20. But I think that what I am absolutely convinced of is at that time we had to change the political debate because the view of the Bush administration at that time was one I just disagreed with.

The key here is "knowing what you know now." What DO we know now? Attacks are down, more of the country is violence free, the civil war has all but ended, and American casulties are WAY down. This July compared to last they are down from 78 to 5. So knowing this, Obama still would not support the surge? Even some of his toadies in the media are admitting it has worked. But he still wouldn't support it knowing what he knows now?

The way he supports this statement is that he'd oppose it simply because he opposed the administration. That means he'd sacrifice the lives of soldiers over politics. Does this sound like the Obama, who will work with all sides, we've had shoved down our throats for months? Actually I don't think this a case of Obama reversing his rhetoric. No, worse, I think this is him showing he's in over his head and has problems thinking things out on the fly.

This may be his "John Kerry, I voted for before I voted against" statement. It's not a very bright. What is left out of the transcript above is his bumble through the answers with more "uhs" than an NFL football player in a postgame interview. The debates this fall should be interesting.

Maybe I am too quick to assume he's going to win. Because he sure seems to be trying to shoot himself in the foot a lot lately. Agree with me or not, many voters are going to be turned off by statements like these.

Photo-Blogging

So, if you hadn't noticed, I am posting a lot of pictures these days. What's up with that? Well, I found that the new iPhone software combined with the Typepad app is completely and utterly awesome. Sure, there were ways before to blog photos live from phones, but now I can do it in basically 2 clicks. For a Typepad user, it is definitely a "killer app". The only thing cooler on my phone are the Pandora and Last.fm apps.

So you will probably see more of this kind of blogging from me. It's a great way to keep new content flowing while I am on the go. Hope enjoy it.

Out to Lunch With Birthday Boy!

It's Riley's birthday! He's five years old.