I think I figured out one reason why God has me working at Whole Foods Market: so I can gather sermon illustrations. The other day I was marveling at an “Earth mom” who had three children (probably born 9 months and 10 minutes apart), one in a stroller, one toddeling along and one strapped to her chest. She was in a “whole foods” store buying organic whatever. I didn’t hate her or anything, I was just pondering the idea of where we get our ideas of what is good and bad. A person such as her may believe that fertilizer on carrots is bad for you and that child-lead weaning is good (I have no idea if she did, we didn’t get to talk). It got me thinking of what Scripture says about these things, which is an entire other subject.

Later, this man came to the hot food counter and asked for a sandwich. His son, 6 or 7 years old I’d guess, was with him and kept jumping and leaning on the display. Dad told him repeatedly to stop. Finally he’d had enough and said “that’s it, you get a sad face.” Well, whatever that meant, it sent junior into a tizzy. He wanted something (I couldn’t make out the word) and now he wasn’t going to get it. After a moment or two of screaming “I want it” the kid was on his back on the floor kicking and screaming. Dad did nothing. In my mind I gave Dad a sad face but I don’t think he cared.

Dad got his sandwich and turned away while junior continued to screem. After a minute the kid ran to Mommy and whined about wanting “it” (me and the next guy I served were both willing to give the kid ‘it’ but I don’t think it was what the kid was asking for). Mommy picked him and and carried him. I’ll bet he got whatever he was after too.

I kept thinking of what a perfect example of human depravity this was. People who think children emerge innocent and sinless from the womb must be missing something, either that or I am. No one told that kid to act like that, he just did and it worked so he continued. I doubt that Dad trained him on the proper way to lay on the floor and the correct kicking method. Likewise, Dad didn’t train him that such is not appropriate behavior for a civilized person. But when it comes down to it, we’re all just like that little kid. We want ‘it’ and we’re highly outraged if we don’t get ‘it’ and now.

Here’s why you really want to be Left Behind:

The Son of Man will send his angels, and they will gather out of his kingdom all causes of sin and all law-breakers, and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth – Matthew 13:41-42 (ESV)

I work full time and go to school full time so guess how much time blogging gets. Here’s an update of cool recent events.
1) I have been called for a second interview by a security company so a new job could be on the horizon, one that pays better.
2) Handspring mailed me a free replacement Visor Deluxe even though the old one has been out of warranty for about 8 months. And the replacement is black instead of translucent blue. Thank you Handspring.
3) The Neo arrived the same day as the Deluxe and the Neo kept locking up and needing a soft reboot. I feared that the company wouldn’t allow a return but they did.
4) God is continuing to meet our financial needs even though I haven’t received a paycheck from Whole Foods yet nor have I seen a retirement check. I am constantly thankful and amazed at how he works.
5) We are checking out a Presbyterian church right now (PCA). I don’t know how it will work out in the long run. They’ll let me be a member (I am a Calvinist, a Covenant Theologian and all but I reject infant baptism) but I could never be in a position of leadership in the church. I don’t know how that would affect an internship (if at all, if that was even a possibilty).

My second day of work and I’ve already gotten a raise! Well, sort of. Actually, the decided to start me at a bit higher pay rate that was originally discussed. That’s a good thing because the original rate would have had us starve to death in six months. (Kidding, but it wasn’t great. Still isn’t *great* come to think of it, but it is better).

On a related front, I officially turned into a MSgt (ret) on September 1st! Whoot! No more active duty. But my retirement pay still hasn’t shown up in my bank account yet.

Oh man, do I have some catching up to do on the blog front.

1) I dropped my Handspring Visor Deluxe about 1 foot and the screen cracked. I just picked up a “returned” Visor Neo off eBay for the price of a replacement screen. Hope that was a good move. The Neo has a faster CPU.

2) I found a job at Whole Foods Market but it doesn’t pay enough but it is a job for now. I’m looking else where and was offered a job by security company for better pay but it requires a bigger initial outlay. Still praying over that. There is a secular radio station up the road from me. I think I’ll pop in some time and see if they need anyone to babysit the board at night. I have radio experience (I did a radio program for my church for a while) and worked sound for two bands and at church. It would be nice to read and listen to music at night and get paid for it. We’ll see.

3) This is registration week! It has been great. There have been some wonderful devotions by some of the profs every morning. What a great way to start the day, wish we did it every day. :) As far as actual registration, they assigned people certian times and I got 8:30 AM which is the first time slot. I stand a good chance of getting the classes I want. I’m stacking them all up on Tuesday and Thursday so that it will be easier to do a work schedule around them.

4) I deleted OpenOffice off the iBook when it expired. Aside from it running slow, I didn’t like the way the word processor handeled tables, a function I use a lot. OpenOffice isn’t a bad start but it needs some maturing so I’ll continue to use Word in Classic until something better comes along.

5) I started getting nervous that I hadn’t backed up my Quicken data in a while so I picked up 50 blank CDs for $10 at OfficeMax. Burned a whole bunch of stuff on one and I can stop worrying.

Head’s up. Since .Mac will be subscription and I’m on the “starving student” budget, my website won’t be at http://homepage.mac.com/byfarthersteps for much longer. You should update you links and bookmarks to http://byfarthersteps.blogspot.com and thank you Apple.

The opening music of the heavenly spheres
Has not yet sounded, nor has come to light
The texture, intricacy, color-flight
Of cosmos, introducing history’s years,
And yet, already God transcendent sears
The Void with holy splendor, glory bright,
No shadows known, no meaning yet to night,
Sans shade, sans death, sans sin, sans hate, sans tears.
    God’s Self-Expression, his own Son, his Word
    Joins with his Father, clothed with light of bliss,
    In solemn covenant, resolve assured,
    To save the lost who do not yet exist.
Transcendent Deity now deigns to mesh
With finite clay: the Word takes on our flesh. – D. A. Carson from Holy Sonnets of the Twentieth Century

I am not kidding, at Home Depot I saw a sign that said “Your back to school headquarters.” What kind of school? VoTech?

Okay, I know that we all have those kinds of days at work. But how about the carjacker who tried to steal a van filled with a judo team on their way to teach a course in self defense? That is a bad day at work.

I know us Reformed folks are not supposed to be very comfortable with miracles and such, but I heard about this one when I was in Myanmar before I ever heard about it on the web. What are we supposed to tell this guy, “Get back in the casket, God doesn’t do this kind of thing anymore”?