The weight of the world seems to be on my shoulders this morning. I think everyone is concerned about the immanent war in Iraq. I doubt that I’ll be recalled to active duty for it but I am still concerned about whether we’re doing the right thing. I’ll get concerned about being recalled if we have to fight North Korea at the same time. Still, I think seminary might be a valid reason for a deferment if it comes up.

School should be a joy since I’m focusing a lot on preaching this term (and I love preaching), but I have a sermon outline due tomorrow on Mark 4:1-20 (the parable of the soils) and I preach a 15-minute sermon on Tuesday in a preaching lab, plus I have a lot of reading and exegesis to do. Too much in too short a period of time.

Work is becoming tiresome. It takes too much of my time and I’m having to become more directive as a supervisor. I had to put down a minor coup the other day when the troops started taking breaks when they wanted and didn’t check with me first. I’ve been offered a “mini route” with a window cleaning company but I don’t know how I can do it since I won’t be able to scale back my hours at Whole Foods. Still, I’d like to move into window cleaning so it may be a step in the right direction. On top of that, I’m going to talk with my pastor Friday about a possible position at church as the “District Pastor.” I really, REALLY miss being involved in ministry at church so I’m hoping that that will be a good fit.

Then it turns out that our van is dead. We know that the engine is on its last legs, it has 230,000 miles on it and is burning oil. It has only has another year or so left on it. Now the transmission is shot and needs to rebuilt to the tune of $1,865 (plus tax). I feel that fixing the transmission at this point would be like replacing the kitchen appliances in a house that has a smoldering fire in the basement. Disaster is on the way, should I put more money in it now?

My wonderful wife reminded me this morning that God loves us. That he has fixed his love on us and that he cares for us. It almost sounds glib but she is right. Jesus took my sins to render me right with his Father. I cannot make myself more acceptable to God than to rest in Jesus. The storm of life rages around me, decay strikes at all I have and yet I face an imperishable eternity worshipping and loving God and being loved by him.

So what did I do during Spring Break? No trips to the beach, that’s for sure. I did taxes. Sounds bad but really it isn’t since I getting a nice bit back. The other great thing I got to do was breaks on the truck I’m borrowing. What made the job so long and hard was that we were hitting record lows at the time. One can handle frozen blocks of metal for only so long and still retain the use of one’s fingers, can’t one? A job that should have taken four or five hours took three days.

I had planned on doing some exegesis to get ready for this quad, finishing my PC 501 take-home final a week before it was due, and taking my family to Chicago to visit a museum or two. Those things didn’t happen. We did get to housesit for some friends and that was fun. I took the kids ice skating yesterday. They’ve been taking lessons and are really making me look bad. I tried to practice cross-overs and wound up falling and landing on my knee. It is brused and sore but I don’t think anything is damaged.

With these kinds of “big plans” for two weeks off of school, I just wonder what the summer break will bring!

Strange twist of fate.When I was in high school I had a girlfriend, Sue, who was being physically abused by her psycho mother. We eventually got her removed from her home and placed with some friends. They were great folks and I felt like family. Anyway, once Sue got away from mom, I began to slowly fade in her eyes. The mother of the family she was staying with once told me that Sue always went with her to the grocery store and always dressed up and put on make-up. Sue got interested in a guy who worked in the deli. So now I work in a deli. Sorry Sue, I’m no longer available.

Mr. Rogers died today of cancer. Though the brunt of many jokes (including my own) he was a good and kind man who cared for children and gently taught them. My heart sank a bit when I heard.

I watched Fred on TV when I was child and I did get to see him once at a book signing in San Diego though I didn’t get to talk to him. Thank you for you kindness, Fred.

It’s official. Apple is going for more marketshare. The immediate goal is 5% and part of the plan includes lowering prices (which they’ve done) and more software from Apple. I am excited. I think Apple produces a superior OS and on the hardware side there are only a few products that come close. HP has a nice laptop out and the Sony Viso is cool. If I had to use a PC, I’d probably go with one of those.

I can’t wait to see what this summer brings from Apple. They’ve recently introduced their own browser and presentation software, what’s next?

From the assigned reading for PC 501, Intro to Counseling:

Jethro’s advising Moses in Exodus 18:13-27 is an early example of short-term counseling, and there are some aspects of his technique that might be considered in a modern approach to helping…Pastors are especially commissioned to care for their flock, which includes their mental and emotional health as much as their spiritual well-being.

Uummmmmm….eeeeehhhh…..errrrrrrrr….AAAAAAAAGGGGGGHHHHHHH! Jethro provided Moses counseling and looked after his mental and emotional health?? No way! Counseling in the sense we understand it today is a pretty new phenomena. That doesn’t make it wrong, it can still be helpful. But puh-leeze don’t torture biblical texts to get some sort of justification for it. Second, I’m commissioned to care for my congregation’s mental and emotional well being? Where’s that in the Bible? I am to shepherd the flock but that doesn’t mean I am their psychologist. And if we’re going to lump emotional and mental health in there, why not physical as well? Maybe I should be taking some basic medical classes as well.< I am not dissing counseling in general. I think it is a valid and helpful thing and I don't even mind picking up some skills along the way. But this kind of attitude is just not helpful. It confuses theological issues and puts a burden on the pastor that he isn't necessarily called or gifted for. I'm not surprised that the article begins with a story of how the author helped someone with a sleep problem by telling her to read her husband's theology books when she couldn't get to sleep. I guess this was supposed to be funny but why should the study of God be sleep inducing? As a friend of mine said, "I study theology in order to worship God better. Theology is devotional." Exactly.

There are rumors that the next version of Safari will include tabs. That’d be great. What is really cool in this version is the spell checker. If you don’t know what tabs are, they are…uh, tabs across the top of the display window. Each tab opens a different web page so you don’t have to manage three windows. It is a very cool feature in Chimera and will be a great addition to Safari.

The other thing that would be cool to add would be something like the scrapbook function from IE5 for the Mac. You just drag the page to your scrap book and IE saves a copy of it so you can go back to it without an internet connection. That is the only reason I still have IE installed. That and some compatability issues.

Okay, now I REALLY feel sorry for Windows users. I just downloaded Konfabulator and some of the widgets that go with it. Maybe sometime I can do a screen shot and post it so you can see just how cool this is. I’ve got a weather widget, a battery monitor and a really cool transparent iTunes remote control. Wow.

Why go to seminary? Why not just take a qualified man and give him a pulpit or send him out as a church planter? One word: Greek.

Greek is needful for someone who will be held accountable for the souls of his people; he needs to be able to handle the word of God carefully. Yes, there have been great men who did not know Greek (A.W. Pink and John Bunyan come to mind) but we are not all of that same quality.

Greek is necessary, but it is also difficult. If it is a rare man that can carefully handle the word of God without knowing the original languages, it is an even more rare man who can adequately train himself in Greek or an exceedingly rare pastor who has the talent and time to train men in this. We need seminary professors to train us in this. I am a crummy language student and I need all the help I can get.

Evolution is such a funny thing. While I think it works on a small level, science is so set to make it work on the large scale that they crack me up. For example, according to this BBC article, a scientist seems to have figured out how dinos learned to fly and turn into birds. I quote, “[F]light may have evolved in two-legged dinosaurs that flapped their feathered fore-limbs to climb slopes. ” What it misses is why the feathers were there in the first place. What evolutionary edge did they provide before flight? I guess none but once the dinos found they had them, they put them to good use.