sheep in wolves clothing?

For someone who claims I do not want to think about the 2008 Presidential election in 2008 yet (and it's true, I really don't. If only I could effectively avoid it altogether...), I have been doing an awful lot of thinking about the 2008 Presidential election.

Sigh.

Obama. Obama. Clinton. Obama.

Pass the milk of magnesia, please.

But between those two worthy candidates of the more liberal persuasion, I am, frankly, more concerned about Obama. At least with Mrs. Clinton, there is a transparency there. Not deliberately, admittedly, but her agenda is growingly transparent because we have gotten to know her during her husband's tenure in office and as a New York senator. We understand her. We know where her mind and heart are on issues and we have come to realize that, above all, she desires power.

But Obama is, for me, more of a wild card. If you ask me (and you did, didn't you?), he has a superior chance of winning the vote of the Democratic party when that time comes. So who IS this guy? Frankly, if I choose to believe the viewpoint of him as a radical Muslim masquerading as a moderate Christian as expressed by growing numbers of learned individuals, he poses a very real threat. If I do not, then the only threat he poses is a mild, political one - where it conflicts with my opinions of how the general American system should function. Because, after all, it is not politics but faith in God that effects lasting changes on generations of people. Politics is an ineffective servant and a hollow, charismatic master at best. In seeking to understand Obama, I endeavor to get to "know" him with my eyes wide open. I encourage EVERY SINGLE ONE OF US to do the same.

Know who you are voting for before you vote. Don't cast a single vote from an under-educated position. Please join me in my commitment to research the candidates until I can complete my ballot with the security that only an educated confidence can bring.

Toward that end, two books are on order and are headed for my home this week. The first, "the Audacity of Hope" was penned by Obama himself (I got it secondhand from my friend), and promises to be an interesting read. The second, "Now They Call Me Infidel", written by Nonie Darwish, exposes the agenda of radical Islam. She claims it is at diligent work within our geographical, political, spiritual, and familial borders - at work under the guise of compassionate moderatism. She warns against the violent, totalitarian threat this poses, which is being largely ignored, to our collective peril. I plan to be a rapt audience, open to what God would have me glean from these books to translate into my expanded understanding of the people whom I will likely be asked to make a decision about, come 2008.

Shoot. Apparently, I *DO* buy bikinis in January. Well, at least I try them on in the dressing room and think about what I will buy, when the world thaws out.

On Global Warming

Ten Truths I Hold To Be Self-Evident About Global Warming:

1.) God created the heavens and the earth.

2.) God is sovereign over all of His creation. Our God reigns.

3.) God clearly calls us to be stewards of His creation.

4.) We are doing a spectacularly poor job of fulfilling our obligations as stewards, as we regularly fail to obey Lord and care for His creation and His people.

5.) We cannot intelligently expect to continue polluting our fragile, intricately woven, and life-sustaining environment indefinitely without expecting to eventually harm it irrevocably.

6.) Since the creation of this planet, there has never been one nanosecond when the climate, tectonic plates, land, sea, air, ocean levels, temperatures, weather, conditions, and life on this planet were static and unchanging. There has never been one moment when we stood still at some elusive point of pristine inertia.

7.) No amount of compost piles you have in your backyard or the act of driving your electric vehicle around town is going to hinder the next tsunami, earthquake, flood, or tornado.

8.) It's still noble and honorable to do whatever we can, to the best of our abilities, to answer God's call to steward this gift He has given us: this planet. And the lives we live upon it.

9.) When I was in elementary school, we were taught about the impending reality of the next Ice Age. Which was imminently going to cause global climate changes that would bring about catastrophic events that culminate in the destruction of all life on the planet.

Now as I sit here in my mid-30's, we are being taught that the polar ice caps are melting. Which is imminently going to create global temperature changes that will bring about catastrophic events that culminate in the destruction of all life on the planet.

That we are newly noticing the sometimes dramatic degrees to which our climate and earth changes should not cause us to embrace a global panic like a bunch of lemmings. After all, who created this earth? Who maintains control over all of creation, and promises us that He knows each hair on every one of our heads and intends to care for us, not to harm us? Do we really believe by faith these powerful promises of our Lord, or are we more compelled by the tangible drama we notice around us? Where is our FAITH?

10.) I reject the burgeoning sensationalism and delusions of human capability we are at risk of falling prey to when we adopt an "inconvenient truth" crafted by human beings when it conflicts with the real truth of the Bible. We're just so confident that we have perfectly defined this "global warming" problem and have all the answers to it, aren't we? I'll openly tell you: that kind of rabidly narcissistic meandering always sends up red flags for me. Certainly, there is common ground between the commonly digested human perspective on this and the Godly one. But in the end, God is in control. This is HIS Creation. Our sin prevents us from admitting our own powerlessness over His creation, and so we grapple with alternative ways to address it without actually having to admit our own powerlessness. We want to exert control, don't we? And that is where we fail. We are not in charge of this planet - God is.

The extent of our control is found in our total, humble submission to His will.

Blog Party Pitch

You may have noticed my new little linky thingy over there on the left side of my sidebar under the Sesame Street US Terror Alert (which always makes me grin), about a BLOG PARTY and wondered what that was about?

Well, the gals over at "5 Minutes For Mom" are hosting a bit of a blogging get together this March. EVERYONE with a blog is invited, regardless of age, gender, religious preference, blog type or title. It is a time to meet new people, engage with other bloggers, listen, learn, and have fun. Oh - and they also seem to have stockpiled a LARGE list of prizes over there too! Just click on the link to take a gander and plan to take part.

NO RSVP or black tie formal wear is required. Join the fun!

ClinBama? A tale of frostbitten bikini wearers

So, anyone want to take a vote for exactly how long it takes before Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama join forces, combining their Election 2008 hopes into one uber-ticket: HillBar? Or Clinbama?

Rolls rather trippingly off the tongue, doesn't it?

In the last 48 hours, I have heard quite a bit of actual news, and even more of the requisite ponderances /opinions / commentary that passes for actual news these days, about Senator Hillary Clinton's strident entry into the 2008 Presidential Election Race. She's "in, and she's in to win!", evidently. I find myself responding to the news with a familiar, unnerving sensation that hit me this week as I visited a Target store for the first time since Christmas. The store was stripped bare of every vestige of winter whatsoever, and was decked out with a rows and rows of the latest and greatest bikinis, summer clothes, suntan enhancers, and beach umbrellas.

Bikinis.

In January.

Clearly, considering I went into Target for another fireplace log to heat my house against the 24 degree weather, what the store is trying to sell me does not meet my needs. To the contrary, they are missing the mark big time.

So, too, are these political messages in JANUARY, 2007, aimed to draw our attention to an election that will happen in NOVEMBER, 2008. Good grief - give it a rest already, all of you! You may not have noticed, but we're kinda busy right now with actual immediate obligations to humanity that we are trying to attend to: The war, the children dying of hunger, thirst, preventable disease and poverty, the AIDS pandemic, and horribly pointless genocide (such as in Darfur) all over the world. Those in our own neighborhoods who cannot afford to feed, clothe, and care for their own families. The archaic tax system in this nation that punishes, not supports, Americans and discourages hard work, savings, and charity. The toxins we continue to pour into our air, water, and soil - polluting the very elements that support life. The precious children who are killed before they draw breath in the barbaric, inexcusable practice of abortion-by-convenience. The children who are forced into slavery and sexual exploitation all over the Indo-Asian continent and beyond. The random guys from such groups as Al Qaeda, PLO, Hamas, Abu Sayaff, Hezbollah, Al Aqsa Martyr's Brigade who keep running around the globe, blowing people up.

All of it more worthy of our attention right now than your political aspirations. There are mountains of problems that face us imminently as people, as Americans, and inhabitants of one connected planet? Clearly, the reality is that it is bitterly COLD outside. But on the TV, what do we see? Bikinis.

The act of voting for an individual to represent us as our President is no longer a guarantee of lasting solutions to any of problems that face us all. Thus, I find myself quite unimpressed with this Election 2008 hoopla. And even less so with would-be Presidential candidates that capitalize on the poor state of things as a means to bolster support for their proposed brand of solutions - their bikinis, if you will - their way of doing things, which they assure us, will serve to rescue us all! Personally, I refuse to vote for any individual who revels in laying blame for the current problems on anyone but themselves, but is reticent to actually jump in and DO SOMETHING. Or who bristles at all proposed solutions pursued by those with the wrong initial (D) or (R) behind their name on the Congressional roster.

For me, all this politics talk is premature by a long shot, and accomplishes little more than to leave a bitter tang in my mouth. Seriously, folks, it is minus 78 degrees outside and they are thrusting the approximate 4 inches of brightly hued fabric tied together with dental floss that apparently passes for swimwear at us, and expecting a rapt audience? Um guys, the timing is off. I am just not ready to think about a certain-to-be-heated Presidential election which is over 18 months away, frankly. I realize that there is a relentless business to politics whose grind drones on regardless of the sentiments of the constituency it would aim to "represent" and "serve", which are, at best, WEARY. But I cannot be expected to tune in with any degree of concentrated effort, to this politics machine, from now until November 2008, when all of this comes to a climax and actually matters.

It's disconcerting to be starting this whole circus this early, if you ask me. No matter what Hillary or Barack or any of the rest of the field of candidates do or say right now, I just can't be bothered to think about the strategy, politicking, sound-byting, jockeying, or positioning until the actual election is a littler nearer - at least within the same calendar year, OK?

So, a quick note to ClinBama and all other 2008 Presidential hopefuls: Keep this simple concept in mind, guys: Bikinis sell a lot better in August than in January.

Croc is rescued from bush, details at 11:00

Just a quick postscript: my beleagured left shoe has been rescused from the prickly shrub over at Tom's Gas. No worse from it's night spent outside in sub-freezing temperatures within the bowels of the evil bramble, it has now been happily reunited with its mate.

I arrived home from my shoe-excavating adventure in time to watch the new episode of "The Office", to bask in the ridiculously inept blunderings of Dwight Schrute and Co. And to continue to marvel at how the producers of this show have managed to infiltrate our lives for the last decade - because they have CLEARLY based the character of Jim upon the antics of my sarcastic, prankster, warm-hearted, goofball husband. It's eerie.

the goofball within gets paroled

Main Entry: goof·ball
Pronunciation: 'gü-f&bah, -ll
Function: noun
Etymology: perhaps alteration of "goof"
Definition : blunderer, klutz, jester, card, buffoon

When you find yourself making people laugh when you're not trying to make people laugh - what is the word for that?

Accidential comedian?

Sardonically talented?

or just...

I've-been-cooped-up-in-my-house-too-long utter goofball?

It's a big grey area I am evidently inhabiting with ample panache over the last 24 hours.

Put it this way: at one point this morning, there was so much black ice on the ground that lost my balance while filling up my car at the gas station. I did manage to grab something to help reduce the impact of my fall, though. That would be my windshield wiper, which promptly snapped off. While walking to the window to pay for my gas (because the automatic machines always break down when it is 28 degrees outside) I met up with the slippery ice again had an impromtu game of "bowling for people", managing to knock down three perfectly innocent bystanders. Rushing to try to help them get back up, I managed to get my foot stuck in a rather prickly frozen bramble. I was only freed from the demon bush when one very nice guy (one of my icy slip-n-slide victims, no less) yanked me as hard as he could, leaving my left shoe behind. All of this effort was met with the scattered laughter and some applause of everyone at the gas station.

My shoe is still buried deep within the evil bramble bush at the gas station. My pride is out there with it. If it gets warmer tomorrow, I plan to go back and retrieve both.

cash guzzler

There are a number of healthy reasons I will never own a Lexus automobile. If you happen to own a Lexus, I tread carefully in hopes that you do not harbor an unusually intimate connection to your car and will now dislike me indefinitely for maligning it. If it soothes you, by all means feel free to snicker at my ordinary, clearly substandard method of transportation as you whiz by me down the freeway.

The first, and potentially most obvious reason: Any given new Lexus has a price tag on it which trumps the mortgage on my first house. And I did not buy my first house in 1948, either. This car apparently has gold plated engine parts. Or an trunk full of cash, which is one of the only explanations my frugal-to-a-fault mind could logically accept for the radically exorbitant cost of this vehicle.

The next reason centers around my beloved police Sergeant husband, who tells me that Lexus' (or is it Lexii?) are among the most commonly stolen cars here in our-neck-of-the-woods, California. Though the Highway Loss Data Institute reports that the most commonly stolen auto in the whole US last year was the Cadillac Escalade, locally, it's any given Lexus on any given day. That information does not thrill me ~ who wants that pressure of that kind of stress, you know? It's like driving with a giant red and white target branded to your hood.

And rounding out the list is that the manufacturers of this particular brand of automobile do not seem to be concerned with how to design and build a car that has anything to do with my life. Case in point: the catalyst for this rather grouchy-toned post. This lovely frostbitten January evening, as I innocently channel surfed, I came across a Lexus commercial extolling the virtues of the newest luxury feature offered in its' newest 2007 model sedan: automatic parallel parking. Yup, that's right: this car will actually parallel park itself with no driving skills required from the human being at the steering wheel. All for the bargain price of around $80,000.

I'll tell you what. For $80,000, not only should this car park itself, it should wash itself, be able to fill itself with gas, and then go out and get a job in order to be able to pay for itself. Because that's the only way it would ever find itself on my driveway.

...for the whole 4 days it would apparently be allowed to park there before some hoodlum stole it.

giving thanks \ thanks giving

Thank you SO much, my dear friends (and you random anonymous readers from Taiwan and Ireland who, according to my blog stats tracker, visit this blog eerily often) for your prayers for me and my family.

As this week comes to a close, I find myself juggling intense joy with brokenness. Joy for myself and my family. Joy for my love of and relationship with the Lord that so sustains and nourishes me when the path I thought I was walking in life takes a sharp detour. Joy that translates into courage: if this surgery is meant for me again, by faith I will navigate it on borrowed strength. This is off-the-chart joy, even for me. I am ELATED that the Lord stepped in to become my strength in the face of a rather daunting series of events. I am joyful that the well I drink from is never empty and that my faith does not depend on me.

But brokeness and fresh bewilderment are also jockeying for position in my soul. Sadness for those loved and cherished ones in my life who do not know the Lord. Who do not know what it is to rest. Who have never tasted of this rich and lasting peace and grace I know. Who do not know what it feels like to reach out in darkness and to feel the grip of the Lord so powerfully yank them into the light. Who seek solace in humanity's hollow answers that pretend to address powerful questions which can never be satisfied by our own limited understanding of the universe and the God who created it. Whose diluted version of "truth" is entirely a fabrication of their own psyche and does not exist beyond themselves. Who do not realize that the very ground they stand upon is quicksand, so deceptively enticing, but - in the end - so dangerously, devoid of substantive truth.

I hurt inside for my inability to share enough with others the real truth, the lasting nourishment, the peace I know. I ache for my own failure and for the barrage of barren belief that exists out there, masquerading as truth. Pretending to be peace. A corrupt, cheap mirage of "faith".

It is a familiar brokenness, I believe, shared by most who love Jesus. I believe with all my heart that we are meant to be transparent - to shine light for a purpose beyond our own. And I yearn to honor that - to fulfill that - to BE that. So why do I instead find myself in tears of inertia, crying for all those I love whose peace and wisdom is as finite and fragile as their own heartbeats? Whose reality exists only unto itself?It is for all those precious people with whom I share this planet that I find myself so keening tonight. I stridently seek to share this gift I have been given with everyone whose heart is open to receive it. To share the source of this peace that passes all understanding. To demonstrate love in it's purest agape form. To point my life's arrow squarely in the direction of Jesus.

I praise God for keeping His promises - again - for never leaving me and for allowing me to dwell in a deeper sense of peace and grace than I could have imagined in this time of scary medical struggle. I pray that everyone could know this hallowed place of grace. I am sure dang thankful I am here. And grateful for every person who continues to keep me and my family in your prayers as we face an unclear path which will involve at least one additional heart surgery. Even my random Irish and Taiwanese blog stalkers...

THANK YOU!

Woudn't take nothing for my journey

I am here! I've just been taking a little well-derved rest.

This approximate two-week absence from my blog is, in this instance, rather meaningful. You see, this most current leg of my life's journey has involved some rather stormy seas.

We found out just before Thanksgiving that I would be facing heart surgery in January to repair a congenital heart defect that was causing blood clots. A bit out of left field and not the manner in which we hoped to begin 2007, certainly. But face it we did. We knelt in prayer quite a bit in the time leading up to this week, asking for strength, courage, bravery, and peace. We drew near to the comfort of the Lord and of family and friends. I tasted grace in the face of fear. A new level of my faith was born.

And this Tuesday morning, between 10:22 and 12:56, I was laying upon an operating table at the hospital, surrounded by seven men in aqua and white scrubs and plastic face masks. I was having surgery on my heart.

Unfortunately, I experienced a complication, and despite all their medical expertise and efforts, the doctors were unable to repair the hole that lies between the ventricles of my heart and is cauing me to have strokes. So while I recover here in the toasty comfort of my own bed, I am met with the reality that I will almost definitely need to have this surgery all over again within the next 90 days.

And so we are again in prayer.

But as interesting and painful as this particular portion of the road has been, I wouldn't take nothing for my journey (thanks Maya) because I only see the path behind me and perhaps the step just ahead. The Lord alone is the author and FINISHER of my faith, my life, my steps, my path. He alone knows where He will lead me. I won't waste my moments complaining about the darkness that surrounds me at midnight, because I have faith that the sun will rise again soon.

I covet your prayers for peace and grace as we face this leg of our journey, and may God bless every one who happens upon this blog page.