USO

My 12^th day of Christmas break is being spent in a USO lounge in Atlanta, rather than being spent at my home in Washington as was planned. [another passenger is a Marine Corps Lieutenant, so he got me into the USO] The unexpected, although typically annoying, has been oddly refreshing this time around. I'm missing my family's Christmas celebration tonight. I'm unsure why I'm not overly bothered by this extreme inconvenience, perhaps the monotony of the expected has warn ruts in my life.. However, after sitting around for 2 days I'm definitely ready to get to Seattle. I want to see mountains, rain, trees, and God forgive me: Hippies and all their pot smoking tree-hugger friends. It would make my day to get in a debate right now with a Green Peace volunteer at Pike Place Market. If I am unable to procure a victim to my politically uncorrect views on the “dwindling” polar bear populations when I get home; I will go cut a tree down and shoot guns. Ahhh, Washington. Your taxes are ridiculous, your people are cracked out on weed and caffeine, and your politician's wallets are about as loaded as a scooter ridden by Rosie O'Donnell; but regardless, I miss you.

See you soon.

Merry Christmas

Monday, December 21st

My flight was uneventful. The flight plan was from Dayton to Atlanta to Milwaukee to Seattle. I got a deal at the Airtran desk for a business/first class seat on my Dayton to Atlanta flight for a mere $9. I was heading home in comfort. About 20 minutes after boarding the plane in Atlanta the intercom crackled overhead. It was the stewardess informing the passengers that they needed to grab their baggage and get off the plane. There was no flight crew. After sitting around for an hour and a half finally a flight crew was procured.

So like good little passengers we were herded like cattle once again upon the Boeing 737 (assembled in Washington by the way. Woot.). After 20 minutes the intercom crackled overhead once again. “Will all passengers heading to Seattle please grab their baggage and disembark, I repeat, will all Seatt....” Wait. What!? Doesn't the world understand we gave them Starbucks, Jimi Hendrix, Nirvana, Snowboarding, and Bing Crosby? HA! That's What I thought.

Unfortunately I am only kidding about Seattle being superior to the rest of the world and not about the delays. They let us know we wouldn't be flying that night after letting us sit on the floor for 5 hours at the terminal. We weren't really told why, but we speculate that there wasn't a flight crew to take us from Milwaukee to Seattle. Luckily, the airline put me up in a very nice Sheraton Hotel right near the airport for two nights, gave me two free round trip tickets anywhere in the lower 48, and meal vouchers. Essentially all Seattle bound passengers can't leave until 6pm on the 23^rd at the earliest. Somehow however our luggage made it to Seattle which seems strange to me... So we are all here for 2 days with only the clothes on our backs and our carry-ons. On top of this, the airline has overbooked the flight on the 23rd too, so people will be bumped off the flight. Pandemonium will erupt at the terminal. Blood will be shed. This is what happens when you get a mob of caffeine addicts angry.

The point is: Please, do yourself a favor and don't fly Airtran.

[My anger is facetious. I actually don't really mind too much. Its obviously irritating, but what can we do about it? Also, the fact I got nearly $1000 in free flights makes things better, providing those flights don't do this same thing...]

-Sleepless in Atlanta

Book Shopping

Occasionally I find the urge, typically after a cup or two of late-night coffee, to peruse online stores. Tonight my mission was a search for books. It is an understatement to say I am not an avid reader. On my recent trip to New Orleans, I finished Don’t Waste Your Life after attempting to read it for a mere two years. Yes, I understand the irony. Despite my extreme lack of attention to scholarly pursuits, I found myself searching for additions to my library from authors like C.S. Lewis, Spurgeon, Piper, and others. Among books by these authors I value, I found a considerable amount of what I am now dubbing ‘Christian Crap’. I found that there are far too many “Christian” titles display and throw forth a disgusting humanist approach to Christianity. I’m mainly speaking of the self help genre of ‘Christian’ books. I can’t criticize all these titles as I obviously haven’t read them all; however I still find myself discouraged by the mass of Christian literature that places man as the center of God’s plan. These books turn Christianity into a mere religion rather than the Christ centered relationship that a true Christian experiences. In his song, Much of You, Steven Curtis Chapman says, “How could I stand here…And think for a moment, the point of it all was to make much of me?”.

I agree with Mr. Chapman. I don’t care about my best life now. I don’t care about 3 easy steps to solving men’s problems. It seems to me that anything less that placing Christ as the center of our living is wrong and hypocritical if we call ourselves Christians. If we live like it or not, we are here for his glorification. Therefore, all these books negating the transforming work of the Holy Spirit is heretical. Christians, please use discernment! Good Grief. The fact that these books are published and are on best seller lists concerns me greatly.

I’m not saying you should only read a KJV bible. I believe our 66 book love letter we have from God should be read along with solid books. Don’t Waste Your Life is an excellent example. The book doesn’t outline how YOU can live an amazing life through your power, rather it encourages the believer to not fall into worship of materialism and the American dream. It encourages the believer to pursue God with reckless abandon, much like Paul and the early believers did. Christ remains in his place of glory while the author challenges the believer to be counter cultural. To be Christian. These are the books we need because somehow we miss to interpret and live out the bible for ourselves .

I’m sorry for my caffeine induced ranting, however tonight I was reminded of all the ‘Christian Crap’ out there. Christians, please read with discernment.

August 1, 1953

August 1, 1953 marked a life changing event for many. Nearly a year previously Charley Brown had approached Betty Clement and requested that she marry him. They had never dated. They had merely worked together for 7 months. Yet, somehow this Rhode Island native summoned the courage to ask. The rest as they say is history.

August 1, 1953 was the beginning of a marriage, the beginning of a grand adventure, and the beginning of a friendship. “God has been good. He has taken care of us”, my grandmother says. She then shares the story of how the two of them met, worked together in M.R.A, and then abruptly married. My grandfather, now being in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, grins with a twinkle in his eye at the all but lost memories of love and faithfulness. It has been 56 years now and despite my grandfather’s illness he still remembers to say “I love you” every night before they fall asleep.

I know very little. What I do know is that love can’t just be the feeling of a quickened heart beat when the other is near, not your needs being met, nor should love be fleeting. 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 also has much to say about love. However, when I think of love I think of that wrinkled and scarred old couple hand in hand, confessing how God has been good to them through the entirety of their 85 years on earth. It has been the grace of God and a choice to love Him and each other that has pulled them through. My grandfather had a stroke a few days ago. One out of maybe a handful of times he has been in the hospital. As my grandfather’s health declines, my grandmother continues to fight on for the both of them. I have no doubt they lay hand in hand, vows upheld, ready to meet their father. This my friends, is love. In 65 years, I hope to be so fortunate.

-DB