Brian Hagerman Blogs

Hello Darkness, My Old Friend...

2009-02-04T22:00:00.002-06:00

...I've come to talk with you again.

It's been almost a year since I've posted. I've thought about it from time to time. There was much to write about -- flooding, tornados, elections, and life. Recently I opened a Facebook account and have been having fun with it.

If you happened to have landed here through Facebook and want to see what wandered through my mind in 2006-08, read the archives. You'll read about my church, my faith, my family, my politics, my sports, and the rest of me from head to toe.

So, nothing big to write about now, except to say that I do remember the password, and I may have something to say tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Super Tuesday 2

2008-03-04T08:04:00.002-06:00

Political commentators are making the case that today, in the Alamo state, Hilary Clinton is making her last stand. Win in Texas and she continues to fight for the Democratic nomination for president. Lose, and Obama is heading straight to the convention.

Albeit drawn out longer than in previous elections, the contests of caucuses and primaries has done what it is supposed to do -- give the electorate an opportunity to weed through the long list of senators, representatives and governors who want to be President, and dash some dreams along the way. The first campaign to fizzle out was that of former Iowa Gov. Tom Vilsack, who ended his run many months before the caucus calendar began, due to poor fundraising (he has since backed Clinton). The last campaign to fold may be that of Clinton.

From a field of more than a dozen contenders, we are left with four. (Ron Paul would make five, but he has turned his attention to getting re-elected for his Texas congressional seat. If he can't be President, he at least wants to retain his excellent group health benefits.)

I came out on this blog with support for Mike Huckabee before it was the hip thing to do. Thanks to my vote, he won the state of Iowa and enjoyed the limelight for exactly one week. Then, John McCain rose up to win in New Hampshire, and continued to win across the country. Huckabee has won on several other occasions in southern contests, but has not caught fire on a national level. He is the most socially conservative candidate left (perhaps the only social conservative) and certainly the easiest of the candidates to listen to, but that's where his attributes have seemed to end for most.

John McCain has been waiting for eight years to become the Republican nominee for President. The wait will become reality by 9 p.m. this evening. McCain is many things -- a war veteran (many say hero), a lifelong politician, and a man often at odds with his party's talking heads. According to candid interviews I've read, he's also is a hothead that, when crossed, might loose his tongue and call anybody any name in the book. That kind of guy doesn't appeal much to me.

But McCain would have to be a far worse candidate for me to seriously consider voting Democrat. If you're feeling blue, Obama appears to be the man with the momentum. Near as I can tell, his campaign has had one single theme -- I didn't vote for the war in Iraq, and don't you forget it. To his oratory credit, he has remained consistent in speech after speech. You know Obama is the candidate of change (because that's what he's told us over and over again). But change from what to what? He's said a lot of things, but can he deliver? He is an undistinguished, short-term Senator, with no proven ability to enact and pass the kinds of legislation he speaks of.

As for Hilary Clinton (now that she's running for president and using her husband as the bullhorn, apparently she isn't using her maiden name Rodham anymore), her time seems to have come and gone. As her hopes fade, so too will the Clinton dynasty. Bill will go back to his million dollar speeches, Hilary to the Senate, where she will become Obama's most adamant supporter and legislation author. The two will cook up a universal health care plan so big and expensive it will make the war costs look like chump change. Never mind that social security and the national debt remain the two biggest fiscal challenges our country faces. Who has a plan to address those issues?

When I go to the voting booth in November, I anticipate having a choice between loose lipped, military hawk John McCain and loose wallet, military wallflower Barack Obama. Oh, it's a tantalizing decision.

Eany, meany, miny, mo,
Which way will my ballot go?
To the left or to the right,
To end the war or keep the fight?
To pay for guns and tanks, and planes,
Or pay for every one's aches and pains?

Illegal Substances

2008-02-26T07:28:00.002-06:00

The whole Roger Clemens incident and general topic of banned substances in baseball is getting pretty long in the tooth. So, let's talk about another substance that's now illegal in many settings, is grown right here in the states, and is still the rage of stage and screen.

Driving around Kentucky you see two different kinds of fences -- black and white. The white ones nearly always signal a nearby horse farm. The acreages are so large you may not actually see any horses, but you can rest assured they live there. Each one is dotted with an elaborate barn -- not a barn really, but a horse palace. Kentucky is, of course, home to the Kentucky Derby, and many of the horses that win someday compete for that horse racing crown.

Then there are the black fences, and black barns. They represent the other cash cow of Kentucky -- tobacco.

Tobacco is perfectly legal to grow, to buy, and to have possession of. But use it for its intended purpose, and you may find yourself in water. Lighting up is getting harder to do in government buildings, around hospitals, and even in your favorite restaurant.

In the Iowa state legislature, a bill has been introduced that effectively bans smoking everywhere but in your own home (unless your home doubles as an in-home daycare, then smoking is a no-no even there). Walk within a few feet of the doorway to the mall, and you better be putting your cigarette out! There are exceptions, of course. Your corner tavern is one. Casinos are another. If you're caught blowing chemical smoke in the general vicinity of another, you could pay a $500 fine.

What do we make of this? Tough call.

I have never smoked a cigarette, not one. I hate cigarette smoke. Put me in a room with a smoker and I'll limp out with a headache after a half hour. I am in favor of restaurant owners making their establishment smoke-free. I'm certainly in favor of other business owners deciding whether their own employees have the privilege of lighting up while on the clock. And I know that, as a taxpayer, I'm footing the bill for millions of tobacco users who may become cancer carriers someday. I certainly don't like that.

But, I'm not sure that this broad-based ban on smoking is a good thing. Smoking is legal. Tobacco is legal. Are we trampling on individual rights? Are we creating laws that are nearly impossible to enforce? Are we taking away the liberties of individual business owners and giving too much responsibility to big government?

Seems to me we've been down this road before. It was called prohibition. It lasted a few years, and ultimately was lifted. Changes in the way society morally views alcohol has made consumption more acceptable today. "Adult beverages" are big business. Whether that's good or bad is another topic altogether.

So, what do we do about smoking? Lift all bans, pass local and state laws limiting usage, or get rid of the "heart darts" at the federal level? What say you?

Ch Ch Changes

2008-02-22T08:19:00.002-06:00

Wow, it's been more than a month since my last post. Looking backwards, there are a lot of topics I could have shared my thoughts on. But the truth is I've been busy, and frustrated by my computer.

A year ago I purchased a used computer through Ebay, a Dell Inspiron 9100. Near as I can tell it was a couple of years old at time of purchase. It's a laptop, but almost as heavy as a desktop. I've been really pleased with it until a couple of months ago. This particular model has both a mousepad (which I use often) and a little rubber pointing stick (which I never use). The pointing stick began to fail -- it has a mind of its own and wanders off when I create vibration on the computer's keyboard. Once it wanders it doesn't come back, and I have to pound on the keyboard to reactivite it. Argh!

My solution came in the form of a wireless keyboard/mouse combination I purchased at Staples this week for $14.98 -- a steal. Seems to be a good workaround, especially since I use the laptop primarily as a desktop replacement.

But besides the computer issue, I have been super busy with the big change coming in my life -- a new job. For the last (nearly) six years I have been an agent with New York Life -- a life insurance salesperson. I recently had an opportunity to interview for a NYL management position in Cedar Rapids that gives me the responsibility of training and teaching other agents, and two weeks ago, accepted the job. My start date is March 3. I have been busy completing some responsibilities of my current job, and learning the ropes of the new one. In addition, doing some project work for our church. Whew, it's been a handful. But, it's all good.

Broccoli, Celery, Got to Be ...

2008-01-15T09:50:00.000-06:00

Y'all know the rest, don't you? Of course you do.

VeggieTales!!!

My children came along at just the right time to catch the peak popularity of Bob the tomato and Larry the cucumber. Up until we gave them away, we owned a dozen VHS tapes and more than a few plush toys. We were among those who went to the movie theatre on opening day to watch the first VeggieTales movie, Jonah. Alas, not many more followed.

VeggieTales was the brainchild of Phil Vischer, born here in Iowa, and was taken to the retail world in 1993. It was a unique creation -- talking vegetables that humorously told Bible stories to the under 10 crowd. Like any good youth-oriented product, it was written at a level that both kids and adults could enjoy -- kids for the sheer entertainment of it all, and adults for the cultural references only an adult would understand. VeggieTales become a Christian cultural phenomenon that would eventually become a mainstream phenom too, culminating with the Jonah movie in 2002.

About that time, VeggieTales became VeggieFails -- from a business perspective, anyway. As outlined in the humorous and captivating Vischer book Me, Myself, and Bob, Vischer's Big Idea Productions company had taken on too much debt and could not continue. The vegetables declared bankruptcy and embarrassment. They survive today as an entity of a huge conglomerate, with only moderate creative input from the original players.

This past week the veggies became stars in their second motion picture -- The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything. The picture will be panned by "critics" as being too nice, or too simple, or too archaic in its animation. Remaining fans of the series will hungrily lap it up as one of the very few movies they can take their small children to and not have to be even slightly concerned about obvious, or even subtle, innuendo. To be sure, the most onerous part of taking your kids to a Veggie Tales film is the previews for the other films you must sit through.

My 12 and 9 year-old kids no longer long for VeggieTales, though it wouldn't surprise me if we see this film sooner or later. I'm pretty sure the novelty of talking vegetables telling Bible stories is beyond its expiration date. Yet nothing has taken its place in the retail world.

As I've written before, creative types at Disney, Pixar and other media giants could make a financial killing if they could simply give Christian parents -- any parents -- and young children what they want: squeaky clean entertainment. No eight year-olds swearing, no bare bottoms, no innuendo sexual humor, no political statements. The task seems so easy, yet ... it must be harder than I think or someone would be doing it.

There has never, ever, ever, ever, ever been a show like VeggieTales. Perhaps there never will be again. So come on down to the local theatre -- its time for VeggieTales.

Hawkeye Caucus Results

2008-01-04T08:28:00.000-06:00

Imagine my surprise Thursday night when we pulled within a quarter mile of our Republican-only caucus site last night and came to a grinding halt because traffic was overflowing. Republicans are uninterested in the race for 08? I guess not everyone got the message.

We arrived 30 minutes early to avoid traffic. Instead, cars already lined the side street to Antioch Christian Church in every direction available. We chose to park on the shoulder of a 65 MPH highway and walk quickly through the ice and wind to avoid getting locked out (must be in the caucus by 7 p.m. OR ELSE!). Once inside a sanctuary-turned-precinct site, we quickly surmised that the 500 or so seats were already 90 percent full. We found two chairs and sat, while the sanctuary filled to overflow.

An hour later we drove home listening to the radio announce that Mike Huckabee and Barack Obama were already being declared winners. Our precinct votes had yet to be counted and called in. I thought, "These two must be winning big."

Turning on Fox News, we quickly learned that they were, in fact, winning big. In the end, both Obama and Huckabee won by wider margins than the polls had predicted. Both must be pleased beyond peaches that they won the way they did.

One big story coming out of Iowa is that a record number of Democrats turned out to caucus, about 225,000. That's about the number that the pundits predicted would come out for the two parties combined. It was a record total for Dems. But lost in the shuffle was that a record number of Republicans also turned out -- about 120,000. This is 36 percent more than the previous Republican record set in the 2000 George W. Bush caucus. So, both parties set records, and of course, the 345,000 or so total voters (about 17 percent of Iowa's registered voters) was a record. In other words, Iowans from both parties were excited about their candidates and did their job well.

Though I did not and will not vote for Barack Obama, many did. It is exhaustively reported that Iowa is not representative of the country because we're neither red or blue -- we're vanilla -- 95 percent Caucasian. Yet the black-American Obama was the leading vote-getter. That shows that Iowan's do listen to the candidates and evaluate their merits beyond more superficial characterictics. If that's true of the Obama vote, it is also true of the Huckabee vote.

So, coming strong out of Iowa are a black man and a Southern Baptist preacher, who six months ago were defined exclusively in just those terms. Today they wear a new labels -- winner, and legitimate candidate. Those are terms not applicable to Chris Dodd and Joe Biden (both dropped out immediately following the vote tally) nor Bill Richardson and Duncan Hunter (both will surely fall away within the week). Another job well done by Iowans -- winnowing the candidate pool to a formidable number for future debates.

The cameras and talking heads all boarded their planes at midnight to move to New Hampshire. Not one candidate will be back in Iowa until late summer when the general election swings into gear. Even then, the visits will be few and far between. So, we take a breather until March 2011 ... the likely timeframe for the beginning of the 2012 election.

The Story of Iowa

2008-01-03T09:04:00.000-06:00

The day has finally arrived -- caucusing in the lead state of Iowa will begin this evening at seven. No later than 8:30, the nation will know which candidates are leaving Iowa on a galloping white horse, and which are limping towards a political grave. As I have previously written, I will be caucusing for Mike Huckabee.

Much has been made in the press, both pro and con, about Iowa being the kick-off state for presidential elections. Our local Cedar Rapids Gazette reported the following statistics this morning:

Upwards of $40 million has been spent on campaign ads (the last few days, political adds have run six at a time to fill the entire commercial break of television programming). Of course, much more has been spent on travel, mailings and all the other trappings of being on the road
Candidates have spent the equivalent of 600 days in the Hawkeye state (I'll bet that's a conservative number, as John Edwards spent much of the 2004 campaign here as well)
2,500 media pundits have said everything there is to say about campaign stops in such obscure places as Grundy Center and Dike

In addition to these, by all accounts Mitt Romney alone has spent about $7 million on his Iowa campaign, a good portion of which is his own money. That's a lot of dough for a job that pays $400,000 a year.

Whether Iowa should be the first caucus in the nation and the nine-month focus of the political process is another topic for another day. But this much is true -- the caucuses are important to Iowa. If Iowa was one of two dozen states casting their votes on Super Tuesday February 5, few of the candidates would be here at all. Iowa would be off the map, like our Midwestern counterparts in South Dakota, Kansas, and Nebraska. Maybe a few TV adds here and there. Perhaps a media conference at the airport between stops in Illinois and Missouri. But not the untold millions that are spent now, and the countless coffee shop appearances by a dozen or more candidates.

The last time Iowa was in the news as much as it has been the last month, was in January of 2004 -- the last caucus. The last national impacting news story out of Iowa that doesn't relate to the caucuses was probably the floods of 1993, now 14 years ago. Whether or not the nation needs the Iowa caucus may be a debatable topic. But this is not up for debate -- Iowa does need to be the first-in-the-nation stop for the next President of the United States. If not for your benefit, then for ours.

P.S. It is estimated that about 250,000 Iowans may caucus tonight. If indeed upwards of $40,000,000 has been spent wooing my vote, perhaps in 2012 one of the candidate might just consider writing me a personal check. I don't want to suggest that my vote can be purchased ... obviously the candidates are already convinced that it can be.

Soft on meth

2007-12-20T10:12:00.000-06:00

This just in -- Mike Huckabee's opponents are attacking him for a bill he signed as governor of Arkansas that allowed convicted methamphetamine suppliers to be released from prison early for good behavior. Hence, the charge is that Huckabee is "soft on crime."

Perhaps. But also the last few weeks, Huckabee has been severely criticized by Mitt Romney and others for raising taxes in Arkansas.

I don't know if Arkansas is anything like Iowa in terms of prison populations. But if it is, then their prisons, like ours, are full. Beyond capacity. Outdated.

How do you solve that problem? Well, you build new prisons. Unfortunately, that costs hundreds of millions of dollars. Now, how do you pay for that kind of expense? Hmm .... raise taxes?

See, you can't have it both ways. Prisons, roads, schools and health care programs require money. In a small, rural state like Arkansas, economic development will bring in some funds, but taxes have to bring in the rest.

You just can't win when it comes to politics and political attacks. Admittedly, we don't like our taxes raised, and we don't like criminals to be set free without proper incarceration (and hopefully, rehabilitation). The solution to one of these issues likely comes at the price of the other.

Politicians running for office put out these sound bites and jabs, and then sit back and see what kind of damage they can do to the other candidate. That's the very reason that most American's, while caring deeply about who our President and Congressional representatives are, hate the election process.

Generous Offers

2007-12-20T09:32:00.000-06:00

Since this is the season for gift-giving and tremendous shopping offers, I scanned through my "spam" e-mail this morning to see what unbelievable deals might be available to me. I was astonished that I could take advantage of any of the following offers:

60 percent off vehicle warranties! (Never mind that both of my cars are more than 10 years old)
Fast and easy term life with no medical exam! (I am an insurance agent and already well-insured)
Make $1,000 in 48 hours with no product and no money! (What more can be said about that?)
Law enforcement professionals are needed in my area and scholarships are waiting! (Ironic, since the Cedar Rapids police department recently went through a round of layoffs)
Drop 20 pounds in two weeks! (Oh, if it were only so)
Someone has sent me a Christmas gift card! (Wonder who the "someone" is?)
Final attempt: confirm your e-mail address for K-Mart shipment! (I haven't shopped at K-Mart for years. Remember what Rainman said about K-Mart ...)
Want the best free laptop in the world? (I'll bet that's a great machine)
Wanna see my pics? (One of many offers to meet and/or see someone or something that I don't want to meet or see)
Buy phentermine online without a prescription! (What is phentermine?)
Blackjack tournament needs a high roller! (Uh, high roller has never been a phrase attached to me)
Final attempt: confirm your e-mail address for K-Mart shipment! (I thought I had already received my final attempt???)
Get $1,500 in your bank account in one hour! (Wonder how that happens?)
Win Whoppers and free fries! (That would be a reason to respond to the "lose 20 pounds in two weeks" e-mail)
Say no to drugs! (How refreshing, as 28 offers are asking me to say "yes" to drugs)
Final attempt: confirm your e-mail address for K-Mart shipment! (Third time is a charm)

Of course, I never open any of these spam e-mails, and rarely look through them. My account separates them out (thankfully) into a separate inbox.

Well, if you're looking for just the right gift between now and the 25th, let me know and I'll set you up with any of these fine opportunities.

Steroids, HGH and Supplements, Oh My!

2007-12-19T11:13:00.000-06:00

I have read the Mitchell report. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that I scanned the Mitchell report. It is, including appendices and such, more than 400 pages in length. There aren't many pictures. It is written in attorney speak. Who would want to read it word for word?

Those among us who follow baseball, and even sports in general, know a little something about the Mitchell report. It is authored by former US Senator George Mitchell, and is the conclusion of a 20-month investigation into the use of illegal and banned substances by professional baseball players.

Barry Bonds has been the steroid poster child for the last few years. Bonds, who broke into the majors as a skinny, fleet-footed Pittsburgh Pirate, is finishing his career as a large, slow power hitter with anyone still willing to pay his salary. The all-time home run king is hated for his alleged cheating and various public relations blunders.

In the court of public opinion, and I think in reality, he is guilty. The question is, beyond Barry Bonds, who else is guilty, and how widespread is the problem?

The conclusion of the report -- many are probably guilty, and the problem has been widespread. I was glad to see that my past and present favorite players were not named, guys like Ryne Sandberg, Derrick Lee, and Albert Pujols. But like many, I was surprised to see many current and former All-Stars, including Roger Clemens.

So much has been written about this topic. To me, it all boils down to this. Players take this stuff because they want to perform better, because better performance leads to more lucrative contracts. Guys like Bonds earn $15-20 million annually, payed for through TV deals, ticket prices, and jersey sales. Bonds earns that kind of money because fans support MLB with their wallets. If we didn't go to the games, buy the Cracker Jacks, turn on the TV, and slip on our favorite hat (AKA reduce the demand) things might be different.

But, who's kidding who? Things will not change. Some percentage of athletes will always look for ways to get ahead. This is not new -- it is the human condition. And, why not inject yourself with HGH for a couple years, avoid detection (MLB drug testing does not detect HGH), and sit on your pile of millions the rest of your life? Not an unattractive life, depending on your scruples.

Holiday Entertainment Greats

2007-12-13T07:39:00.000-06:00

Just 12 days to go before Christmas. In the song, "The 12 Days of Christmas," is today the first day, the 12th day, or are we not counting yet?

Beginning with "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown," the television and movie theaters are full of holiday specials during the weeks leading up to Christmas. The screen offerings have become just as much of the holiday season as any other tradition. They are diverse as George C. Scott's Ebenezer Scrooge and Macaulay Caulkin's Kevin.

If you could watch just three holiday specials between October 31 and January 1, what would they be? Movies? Cartoon classics? Parades? Here are my three ...

1) From the big screen we have A Christmas Carol, Miracle on 42nd Street, It's a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Story (you'll shoot yer eye out!), Home Alone, and many more to choose from. But if I could only see one, it would be Christmas Vacation. It's clearly the best of the "Vacation" franchise films, and anyone with an eccentric cousin or in-law in the family will sympathize with Clark Griswold.

2) The Rankin Bass production company made holiday specials for the small screen throughout the 60's and 70's. You're familiar with their work, if not their names. The team that brought us Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Rednosed Reindeer also brought as my favorite among this genre -- The Year Without a Santa Claus. As a kid I remember its two unique characters -- Heat Mizer and Snow Mizer. For two decades the show disappeared from network television, only to resurface a couple years ago. We DVD recorded it, so I'll never have to miss it again.

3) And what would Christmas entertainment be without "A Charlie Brown Christmas?" The "original" Charlie Brown specials of the 1960's are all classics, and this is the best among them. Of course, the highlight is Linus' rendering Biblical recitation of Christ's birth. Charlie Brown and friends do indeed discover the true meaning of Christmas.

No Grinch (though I like arsenic sauce), no parades (though Macy's usually marches through my family room), and no Bah Humbug (though the ghosts will visit our home). The rules were, only choose three.

Let's hear your favorites ...

Huckabee and the Iowa Caucus

2007-12-05T08:44:00.000-06:00

I posted in the fall that Mike Huckabee was becoming my candidate of choice to support in the Iowa caucus. At the time his polling support in Iowa was single digits. He trailed Giuliani, McCain, Romney and Thompson. In just three months, he has apparently lept to the top of the polls and now has a real shot of winning the vote, which is just 28 days away.

What has happened, and what is a proper perspective on this?

First off, Huckabee supporters will tell you (as will Huckabee himself) that he knows who he is, and running for president doesn't require that he begin catering to a new constituency. He is a former Southern Baptist church leader and two-time Republican governor. He has a personal record and voting record that paints a pretty good picture of who he is, and he's not trying to reinvent himself. That's good.

Second, he has played the "Sleeper Risk" card to a "T". I'm referring to the classic board game Risk. As devotees of the game know, one strategy to winning is playing slowly -- not attacking your opponents too quickly, and not positioning yourself as a risk to other players. In other words, lull your fellow players to sleep and then surprise them with your strength.

Politically, this is Huckabee. For months at a time, his opponents paid him no attention. Quietly, with very little money, he has diligently shook hands with the conservative voters that play such a big role in the Iowa caucus. Most seem to like the message and the style with which its delivered. Its only within the last month that the bog dogs have noticed that Huck is no longer polling six percent (I believe he's at 28 percent now).

The larger question is not, "Will Huckabee win Iowa?" Rather, it is, "Can Huckabee win anywhere else but Iowa and Arkansas?" Nationally, he is still a low-poller, a distant fourth. It is a similar story for Democrat John Edwards, whose campaigning in Iowa for the last five years has yielded him respectable polling numbers, but whose national numbers are light years behind Clinton and Obama.

With 28 days left until 125,000 Iowans go the polls (just four percent of the state's population), anything can happen. I do plan to caucus, and at this point, will check the box for Huckabee. I'll keep you posted.

Lessons from the Lord's Supper -- Part IV

2007-11-27T08:40:00.000-06:00

There are a great many lessons that can be drawn from the upper room the night Jesus celebrated the Passover feast with his disciples. Previously, I've mentioned these -- 1) that Jesus was eager to share this night with his friends, and 2) that Jesus continues the transition from the old covenant of Israel to the new covenant of His church.

Here's a third lesson: Jesus wants the cross to be remembered.

This may seem too simple to be of importance. Duh, of course Jesus wants the cross to be remembered. But let's be honest -- much of what happens in a church does not directly point to the cross. This is not a criticism, as much as it is an observation. Take for example:

The modern day American church places a great and growing emphasis on music in worship. We have praise teams, and bands, and choirs, and instrumental interludes, and "special" music. We have practices, and rehearsals, and discussion about what style of music should be used in worship. At its best, our energy focused on music does remind us of the cross of Christ. But we must fight to keep the focus on Jesus and not on ourselves and our "performance." No church is immune, whether you have a choir of 50 or a single man leading an a capella service.
No preacher is willing and able to preach the cross every week of the year, and most churchgoers would not be content for it to happen. Instead, we might spend weeks at a time going through the minor prophets, or the topics of marriage, child rearing, spiritual gifting ... all Biblical and helpful topics to be sure. It is entirely possible that a sermon might never mention the cross, or Christ himself. Is that true in your experience?
Sunday school classes, particularly those for children, really hit the miraculous stories of the Bible hard. Kids learn about David and Goliath, the apple in the garden of Eden, Peter walking on water, and even Balaam and the talking donkey. And yes, our classes may broach the subject of the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus. But, perhaps not often.

You get the idea. It is easy to attend church for 90 minutes each week and not dwell on the message of the cross. But to the early disciples, Jesus had this request (as recorded by the Apostle Paul in 1 Corinthians): "Take it [the bread]; this is my body, which is for you; do this in remembrance of me. This cup is the new covenant in my blood; do this, whenever you drink it, in remembrance of me." For whenever you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord's death until he comes."

Jesus knew there would be distractions, both for the disciples, and for us today. He knew that His followers might need a regular reminder of what happened at Calvary. And so, he uses the simple elements of bread and wine, passed among us, to visually and spiritually take us back to the cross. When there, we recall once again that our sin separated us from God; that Jesus is the unblemished sacrifice that bridges the gap; and that our salvation is found in this act of grace.

The disciples took Jesus direction to heart. Luke writes in Acts 2 that the early church was "devoted" to the breaking of bread. While no specific command is given as to how they demonstrated "devotion," the early church likely shared the Lord's Supper weekly, and perhaps several times each week.

When we gather around the Communion table, we do proclaim the Lord's death. In this act, we retell the gospel story over and over again. Let's never grow tired of such a tradition. Let us not take it for granted, even after a thousand cups of juice have been drunk. The cross is everything to the believer, and the Lord's Supper is surely about the cross.

Lessons from the Lord's Supper -- Part III

2007-11-20T07:40:00.000-06:00

The book of Acts says that the early church was "devoted" to the breaking of bread, the remembrance we commonly call "The Lord's Supper." Last time we looked at the what the New Testament writer Mark says, that Jesus was "eager" to celebrate the Passover with his disciples. Jesus is still eager to see His followers surround the table and break bread with each other.

A second observation from the Lord's Supper is this -- Jesus uses Communion to continue the transition from the old covenant to the new.

Let's remember, Jesus was Jewish, as were the 12. As they gathered for the Passover, they were following the Law that God gave His people. The Passover represented the sparing of life, the protection of the chosen. Each and every year the story of God's wrath on the Egyptians and God's promise to the Israelites would be retold.

As was common with the Law, the Passover also represented sacrifice. The book of Exodus tells us that the Jews were to paint their doorposts with the blood of a lamb. The celebratory Passover week included the sacrifice of a lamb as a sin offering (Deut 16). Under the old law, sin was abundant. As a result, the need for sacrifices was abundant. God required blood to attain righteousness.

This theological pattern could have continued forever, sin = sacrifice. But God had a plan -- one sacrifice to end all sacrifices. The Apostle Paul makes it clear in 1 Cor 5:7 -- Jesus would become the final Passover lamb.

And thus, when Jesus asks His disciples in the upper room to take the bread and eat it, He tells them that His sacrificed body is represented. As He passes the cup, he says that it is "the new covenant in my blood." Translation -- the old covenant of Law and sacrifice has been fulfilled and replaced with a new covenant of grace, purchased with the blood of a Perfect Lamb.

This new covenant, and all that it entails, would be a point of discussion throughout the first century. Many of Paul's letters to the churches addressed this very topic. Even the disciples who reclined at the Communion table with Christ would disagree about the requirements of discipleship (remember the Jerusalem council on circumcision?)

I think we could say the same today. On one level, most born-again believers know that they are saved by grace alone, and not by the works they do -- that our personal sacrifices have no measure of saving worth compared to the one sacrifice made on the cross. Yet, we are quick to tally the balance of our sins against our works of faith, hoping the numbers are in our favor. And, we struggle to avoid counting the sins of others against them.

Jesus is eager to celebrate His death with us, because His death brings life. He reminds us, through the simple, ancient items of bread and wine, that the old requirements of body and blood are no more. Jesus paid it all; all to Him I owe.

Lessons from the Lord's Supper -- Part II

2007-11-15T12:38:00.000-06:00

Part II is really lesson number 1: Jesus is eager to share the supper with his disciples.

Luke writes in Luke 22:15, "I have eagerly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer." Why? In this last few hours of time with his disciples, before an evening of intense prayer, ears being cut off, and an arrest, why does he eagerly desire this night? Let's look at two possible motives ...

1. Jesus wants to show his friends what it means to sacrificially serve
In the Apostle John's account of this evening, we see that Jesus gets up from the table, takes off his outer robe, and washes the disciples feet. A dirty job, this footwashing business. A good host would provide water and a basin for his guest to wash their feet. A well-to-do host might volunteer a slave for footwashing duty. But the host getting his hands dirty? And not just any host, but the Savior of the world?

This is a teachable moment. Jesus says, "Do you understand what I have done for you? You call me 'Teacher' and 'Lord,' and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you also should wash one another's feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you. I tell you the truth, no servant is greater than his master, nor is a messenger greater than the one who sent him. Now that you know these things, you will be blessed if you do them.

God has a role for the disciples -- they will become the leaders of His church. Serve each other, he says. Get dirty. Remember this, do it, and you will be blessed.

2. Jesus wants to tell His friends of His love and plans for them
John's account of the upper room provides teachings from Jesus that the other accounts do not (John ch 13-16). Jesus was God, but also fully human. He had feelings, you know? These men were his best friends. He spent nearly every morning, noon and night with this band of brothers. And now, he is about to physically abandon them, like the mother bird kicking the babies out of the nest and forcing them to fly away. Jesus loves these men. Jesus wants these men to have long-term confidence despite the upcoming short-term events. Again, God has plans for these men. Here are a few things Jesus wants them to know:

"A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another."
"In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going."
"And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Counselor to be with you forever -- the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."
"Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."
"Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing."
"My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit -- fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name."

So, again, here's lesson number 1 from the Lord's Supper: Jesus is eager to share this meal with us, just as he was with the 12. Jesus wants Communion to be a teachable moment -- remember, church, serve one another. Whatever you do for others in my name, you do for me. You are not above your master. And Jesus wants to remind us of how much he loves us. He has plans for us. We were created to return to the Father, through the acceptance of the Son. He wants us to know that He is building our heavenly mansion, that He has sent the Holy Spirit to guide us, and that we are his friends. In him, we have peace. In him, we bear fruit.

The upper room must have been an incredible place to be. It can be the same for us today, as we assemble in our house church living rooms and large church sanctuaries. Jesus is eager to meet us at the table.

The Lord's Supper -- Part I

2007-11-12T08:19:00.000-06:00

This coming Sunday I will be sharing some thoughts about the first Lord's Supper, as described in the Bible's New testament books of Matthew, Mark, Luke, John, and 1 Corinthians.

I've been chewing on the topic for the last month. My first thought was this -- what could I possible teach, and learn for myself, that would be new? After all, I've been around this block before. I became a baptized believer in Christ when I was 10 years old -- that's 27 years ago. I've been in church most every week since then -- churches that included the Lord's Supper in each week's worship service. Some quick math allows me to estimate that I've come to the communion table more than 1,300 times to take the bread and the cup. On a number of those occasions (maybe 50) I have had the responsibility to lead the church in a few devotional thoughts. So, this isn't the first time I've meditated on the words of the New testament writers.

Those of us who teach in any capacity probably feel an undue amount of pressure to bring something enlightening to our audience. We imagine standing in front of the class (or in this case, the church) and seeing the cartoonish light bulb rise above the head of each listener, suddenly glowing bright as we pour out our topical wisdom. We wish for our thoughts to alter a life, perhaps change it completely.

I have had to work through these feelings many times as a worship leader -- "What can I do to 'make' God's people worship today?" And, as a teacher, "What can I say to bring new insight?" Such hopes seem particularly difficult on a topic such as the Lord's Supper. I'm not the only one in my church who has "come to the table" a few times. Most of us have.

And so, the first small lesson I've been reminded of in preparing for this teaching is that it's not up to me to reinvent the scriptures or change a life. Rather, it's God's job. The Bible is, after all, God's Word. It's not mine, it doesn't belong to me. What's more, I can't crawl into a person's heart or mind and undertake a massive construction project. But God can, through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Those of us who teach or lead are the messengers, not the message. We try to share words of wisdom, but we didn't create wisdom. We pray for changed lives, but we aren't responsible for the changing. To assume anything more would be presumptuous, even arrogant.

So, as I approach a teaching that has been delivered by men more learned than I for nearly 2,000 years, my hope is that God simply opens MY eyes to something new, and renews MY appreciation for what happened at the cross. I'll try to leave the rest to God.

The Boring Rush Limbaugh

2007-10-11T08:23:00.001-05:00

Yesterday afternoon I went home early to take some cold medicine, Advil, and a nap. It was about 1:45 p.m., 45 minutes into the three-hour Rush Limbaugh radio show.

I graduated from college in 1992, about the time the Limbaugh show was hitting the national airwaves. He was quite a phenom. His topical updates were hysterical, complete with themed music. He was creating an empire, one listener at a time, and entertaining them along the way. When Bill Clinton was elected, Rush (self-proclaimed conservative and truth-teller) really hit stride. During this period of time I was a frequent listener.

The last 10 years, my jobs and office environments have not been conducive to mid-afternoon radio listening. So, I've fallen out of touch with Rush, never catching more than a few minutes of his show at a time. Yesterday I listened for 135 minutes. What a bore.

Gone, apparently, are calls from listeners. Rush took about 3 an hour. Instead, he'd rather listen to himself speak. No homeless updates, no them music, no plugging of his necktie line (production ceased many years ago). He's still behind the "golden EIB microphone" and reading articles from his "formerly nicotine-stained hands" (never mind that Rush is a frequent cigar smoker, I guess that doesn't count as nicotine).

Rush has been through a lot the last 10 years. He has been divorced, he's had a failed television show, he lost 100 pounds, he was arrested for illegal prescription drug use, and he arguably helped elect a president.

Now, it seems he's just churning out a radio show that helps maintain his millionaire status. It was not entertaining, or amusing, or fun. It was boring. It left me with the feeling that if I go another 10 years before I tune in again, I won't miss much.

Huckabee Comes Out on Top

2007-10-10T09:02:00.000-05:00

Several weeks ago I wrote about a poll I took online that suggested Republican John Cox is the man I should throw my support behind in the '08 presidential run. Never mind that I have never heard of John Cox.

USA Today had another poll out this morning. My results were different this time, probably because the questions were different. In this poll, you are asked to respond to specific policy questions that have been posed to the candidates. For example, "Should the United States have invaded Iraq and deposed Saddam Hussein? "What should happen to illegal immigrants already in the United States?" What should the government do about same-sex couples that want to get married?""What would be the best way to improve the federal income tax system?" There are 11 total questions covering seven subject matters.

My top three matches, in order, were Mike Hukabee (R), Mitt Romney (R), and Tom Tancredo (R). They were separated from the rest of the Republican pack. My bottom three matches (from lowest to highest) were John Edwards (D), Joe Biden (D), and Barack Obama (D). My highest Dem was Hillary Clinton, but her match was below every Republican.

This poll once again affirms my Republican leanings. Huckabee and I answered seven of the 11 questions the same way. John Edwards and I agreed on none.

I have e-mailed the Huckabee campaign to see what his Eastern Iowa campaign schedule is. No reply to that question yet, but I was solicited for a campaign contribution. Go figure.

The Hawgs Strike Out

2007-10-02T10:54:00.001-05:00

The latest fantasy baseball season has concluded, and with it, my attempt to win my own league. After running in the top three 3/4 of the season, I lost steam and finished a disappointing fourth. The final standings:

Jazzman's Stars (our resident personal banker) 87.5
Phillies (local PE teacher and coach) 86.5
Hot Wheelers (long-time friend Jeff Wheeler) 78.5
Hawgs 74.5
Phat Farm Team (president of the CR realtor association) 68
Clemente's Clubbers (researcher extraordinaire 67
Gnats (Rockwell Collins manager and Nationals fan) 63
What the Card Says (father/son duo) 61
Steady Eddy (instrumental music instructor) 58.5
Hawkeyes (my dad) 50
Ink Stain (civic development leader) 46
Cubbies (another local development dude) 39.5

While the fantasy season didn't pan out, the real season has yielded a nice group of National League teams vying for the World Series, including the Cubs.

Those Pesky Newspaper Reporters

2007-09-26T08:38:00.000-05:00

This past week, sports columnist Jenni Carlson of the Daily Oklahoman apparently had some negative things to say about the Oklahoma State football team's quarterback. She questioned his toughness and posed this question: " ... Does he want to be coddled, babied, perhaps even fed chicken?"

None of this would have been all that newsworthy in far flung places like Iowa, except that on Monday the Oklahoma State coach went into a press conference tirade that is now being broadcast several thousand times an hour on You Tube. Coach Gundy "... blasted Carlson the entire time, calling her column 'fiction' and the newspaper 'garbage.'"

Sometimes the relationship between newspaper writer and subject matter can get a little hairy. Believe me, I know. On January 30, 1990, I wrote the following editorial column for the University of Northern Iowa's Northern Iowan:

"Rarely are events as memorable as the hype that proceeds them. This is especially true in athletics .... The UNI-Iowa [basketball game] was an exception. Perhaps in this case the game WAS the most exciting aspect of the evening.

"As a result of UNI's stunning victory, a new level of success has been reached in Panther athletics. Panther fans could carve a big notch in their bedposts and proudly chant, 'We're number one, we're number one.'"

"UNI 77-Iowa 74. I think its universally recognized that Iowa men's basketball is vulnerable this year. Many prognosticators pick Iowa to finish near the bottom of the Big Ten. The same crystal ball lists UNI as runaway AMCU champions. So, UNI wins at home, in the dome, for the first time in 75 years. Impressive, maybe so."

I went on to suggest that UNI fans should avoid getting too big for their britches, the league it played in was inferior, and that "we should realize we have a good team and be proud of what it does. But, don't dream of what it can't do. National championships are not around any corner on this campus."

"Don't let the thrill of a little success fool you. Enjoy Panther basketball for what it is -- in-state athletes using their talents for a few more years. Thank them for the entertainment they provide, support them with pride. Don't belittle their success with talk of greatness."

As football commentator Keith Jackson would say, "Whoa Nelly!" That column, written 17 years ago, got me in heaps of trouble. The basketball team captain called me up and volunteered to rearrange my face. Threats from large male students plugged up my dorm room voicemail. Letters to the editor piled up (a rare occurrence for the Northern Iowan). I even had a sit-down with then-head basketball coach Eldon Miller and head football coach Terry Allen.

Was what I said true? Some parts were. The University of Iowa Hawkeyes went on to have a dismal year, finishing low in the Big Ten. UNI went on to have the best season in its history (at that point), even winning an NCAA tournament game against Missouri. The Association of Mid-Continent Universities (AMCU) was kind of a rinky dink outfit. It has changed its name and team lineup many times since 1990, and UNI is no longer in it. In 1990, it was rare for UNI to beat Iowa or Iowa State University in any athletic competition, let alone men's basketball (the gap has narrowed in recent years). UNI has not won a national basketball championship (it has never gotten past the second round of the NCAA tourney).

But, was what I wrote inflammatory? Yep. Not intentionally, but obviously.

Was Ms. Carlson of Oklahoma trying to be inflammatory? I don't know. Here's my guess though -- she is paid by the newspaper to write about sports, in a way that both sells newspapers and accurately reflects the truth. Since the job of an opinion columnist is to express their opinion, you can imagine that others may disagree from time to time. Carlson suggested that the QB in question is "soft." Coach Gundy, at least in a public forum, has a different opinion.

I wonder who is receiving the brunt of criticism in Oklahoma this week -- the quarterback who lost his starting job, the reporter who tried to explain why, or the coach who lost his cool in front of the world.

And the beat goes on ...

Middle Aged

2007-09-24T09:05:00.001-05:00

Are you middle aged?

I read in the newspaper yesterday that the median age (half the population is higher and half is lower) of all people in the world is 25. At 37, I'm 12 years beyond the average global population age. No wonder I'm getting fat and creaky!

If that median age surprises you, keep in mind that disease and war claim many lives prematurely in some African, Middle East, and Pacific Rim nations. If you take away some of these countries, the median age increases.

How about the United States? The same article said the median age in our nation is 37. So, as I already suspected, I am incredibly average.

Candidate Calculator

2007-09-19T08:12:00.000-05:00

My friend Jeff Wheeler posted a link to this presidential candidate calculator on his website. As I've previously written, I'm not yet sure who to support, and I'm always game for these kinds of polls. You might take it for yourself to see how you do.

Here's how I answered some of the questions:
Do you support...

Abortion rights: No
Death penalty: Yes
No child left behind: No
Stem cell research: Unsure
ANWR drilling: Yes
Assault weapons ban: Yes
Gun background checks: Yes
Citizen path for illegals: No
Border fence: Yes
Support Iraq war: No
Iran military action: No
Iran sanctions: Yes
Increase minimum wage: No
Same sex marriage: No
Universal healthcare: Unsure
School vouchers: Yes
Privatize social security: Unsure

You are suppose to rate the issues as high, medium, and low in terms of importance to you. My results were as follows:

John Cox: 94 percent match. I don't know who John Cox is. He is easily my closest match.
Mitt Romney, Tommy Thompson, Rudy Giuliani, Tom Tancredo: These four were bunched together as a statistical group in the 80 percent range.
Highest Democrat: Joe Biden at 56 percent match
Three lowest matches: Bill Richardson, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards

What did I learn? I guess I really am more of a Republican than a Democrat, despite my lack of strong enthusiasm for any particular announced candidate. Perhaps I should find out more about John Cox, though it would be a waste of my time, because he ain't gonna win. Tommy Thompson has already dropped out of the race. I'm surprised that Rudy is a strong match (I don't think I would want to support him). Perhaps I've been too quick to dismiss Mitt Romney.

Let me know how you score.

What Has Changed Since THE 9/11?

2007-09-11T12:40:00.000-05:00

It seems fashionable to write about the events of September 11, 2001, on this sixth anniversary of that day. Doesn't it say a lot about the impact of those two airplanes, that I could have simply said, "I'm writing about 9/11," and everyone would have understood what was meant? Is there any other day in all of human history that is so understood by just three numbers and a backslash?

I have told the story many times that on this day six years ago I was interviewing for a communications management job at the Duane Arnold nuclear power plant in Palo, Iowa. Throughout the morning, like many of you, I sat at my desk at work (Rockwell Collins) and strained to hear the news coming from a few radios scattered throughout the building. The Internet was hopelessly slowed by the millions of people doing just what I was doing -- seeking verification of the facts.

Around 10 a.m. I left my desk to drive to the power plant. Upon arrival, I waited at a security gate for almost an hour. Big surprise -- the plant was in lock down mode. Of all the places to be interviewing for a job .... Well, the interview was a little passionless on both my part and theirs. I didn't receive an offer, and within three months I was making plans to join New York Life.

Much, of course, has changed in the last 2,190 days. But here's a little personal observation that won't be heralded in the media -- Rockwell Collins has boomed.

Shortly following the 9/11 attacks the airline industry just about went belly-up, as Americans quit flying. The bankruptcies of the airlines trickled down to airplane manufacturers like Boeing and Airbus. Since airlines quit ordering airplanes, airplane manufacturers quit ordering communication systems. Rockwell Collins, one of the world's leading manufacturers of such systems, tanked. The stock price lost 65 percent of its value. Nearly 3,000 employee layoffs were announced. Divisions realigned. Takeover rumors abounded. It was a mess.

But then, two things happened. First the United States went to war, first in Afghanistan, and then in Iraq. Military production boomed. Rockwell Collins, defense contractor, went to work.

And second, after two years or so, Americans again took to the skies. Airlines started making money and ordering planes. Boeing began to build jets, and order radios. Rockwell Collins, surging due to military contracts, also spurted on the commercial side. Record profits followed record profits. The stock hit $30, then $40, then $50, and higher. Employees began earning annual bonuses beyond anything previously paid.

Today, right now, Rockwell Collins has 505 job openings listed at their website. They can't hire people fast enough. As a result, the Cedar Rapids-area economy is strong. Not perfect, but acceptable to most.

That's one way my hometown has changed since 9/11. How about yours?

What are Duke Lacrosse Players Worth?

2007-09-07T10:41:00.000-05:00

I heard on ESPN radio this morning that three Duke lacrosse players are suing the city of Durham, North Carolina for $30 million.

You remember this national story. A young woman claimed that the players had group raped her. Duke University shut down the Lacrosse program. The local DA aggressively pursued the case. Then, the woman was found to be lying, and the prosecutor was fired for helping cook up the case. Surely, the whole thing was unfair and unfortunate for the athletes.

It’s no surprise then, that the players would be suing someone for defamation of character or some such thing. But really, where do you come up with the sum of $30 million as being a fair value?

Is there a professional lacrosse league that they would have been drafted into had they not lost a year of their college careers? Maybe such a league pays a $30 million signing bonus like the NFL.
Have these players lost all ability to get a job after graduation? Even if they have (which is likely not the case) what is their earning power? If their average earnings were $100,000 for 40 years, that's $4 million, not $30 million.
Did the lawyers defending them charge $29 million for their services, leaving the players with a million to supplant their pain and suffering? That's probably not too far off the mark.

Am I sympathetic toward the players and what they have been through? Sure. But am I $30,000,000 sympathetic. Hmmmm, not really.

This is just one of many examples of how a litigious society costs us all. If the players were to receive $30 million from the city of Durham, how does that get paid? Sales taxes? Property taxes? Increased fees? If the city has insurance that would pay for such damages, how do you suppose the insurance company would pay the claim? Perhaps by raising their rates for future policies?

In the end, when big lawsuits are won, the ultimate payer of the check is society -- you and me -- in some form or fashion. $30 million here, $8 billion there ... it all adds up.

God, in His Own Words

2007-09-06T07:58:00.000-05:00

The book of Job, chapter 38

Then the LORD answered Job out of the storm. He said:

"Who is this that darkens my counsel with words without knowledge? Brace yourself like a man; I will question you, and you shall answer me.

"Where were you when I laid the earth's foundation? Tell me, if you understand. Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know! Who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its footings set, or who laid its cornerstone -- while the morning stars sang together and all the angels shouted for joy?

"Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, 'This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt'?

"Have you ever given orders to the morning, or shown the dawn its place, that it might take the earth by the edges and shake the wicked out of it?

"Have you journeyed to the springs of the sea or walked in the recesses of the deep? Have the gates of death been shown to you? Have you seen the gates of the shadow of death ? Have you comprehended the vast expanses of the earth? Tell me, if you know all this.

"What is the way to the abode of light? And where does darkness reside? Can you take them to their places? Do you know the paths to their dwellings? Surely you know, for you were already born! You have lived so many years!

"Have you entered the storehouses of the snow or seen the storehouses of the hail, which I reserve for times of trouble, for days of war and battle? What is the way to the place where the lightning is dispersed, or the place where the east winds are scattered over the earth? Who cuts a channel for the torrents of rain, and a path for the thunderstorm, to water a land where no man lives, a desert with no one in it, to satisfy a desolate wasteland and make it sprout with grass?

"Does the rain have a father? Who fathers the drops of dew? From whose womb comes the ice? Who gives birth to the frost from the heavens when the waters become hard as stone, when the surface of the deep is frozen? Can you bring forth the constellations in their seasons or lead out the Bear with its cubs? Do you know the laws of the heavens? Can you set up God's dominion over the earth?

"Can you raise your voice to the clouds and cover yourself with a flood of water? Do you send the lightning bolts on their way? Do they report to you, 'Here we are'? Who endowed the heart with wisdom or gave understanding to the mind ? Who has the wisdom to count the clouds? Who can tip over the water jars of the heavens when the dust becomes hard and the clods of earth stick together?

Oh God, You are my God,
And I will ever praise You.
Oh God, You are my God,
And I will ever praise You.
I will seek you in the morning,
And I will learn to walk in Your ways,
And step by step You'll lead me,
And I will follow You all of my days.
-- Rich Mullins

Iowa Hawkeye Predictions

2007-08-29T09:01:00.000-05:00

Tis the time of year for followers of college football to show how far from reality the world is that they live in. That's right, it's time to predict all the blowout wins your team will accumulate in the next 13 weeks, and minimize the potential for losses.

Predicting the Iowa Hawkeyes the last few years has been tough. The team probably overachieved 2002-04 and underachieved 2005-06. Aught seven brings a wealth of new starters, recent bad publicity for the off-field actions of a few players, and a schedule abnormality.

Without further delay, here we go ...

Week 1: Iowa enters glitzy Soldier Field for its opener against the Northern Illinois Huskies. In recent years, NI has been an above average team in a lesser-talented conference. Iowa will likely break out only its most basic offensive and defensive schemes, which means the game will stay close and, perhaps, low scoring. Iowa 21 -- Northern Illinois 10

Week 2: It took a miraculous goal-line stand to hold off the Orange last year. For Hawk fans, it was the first sign that its team was not as strong as hoped for. The game is under the lights in Iowa City this year. Look for 'Cuse to struggle so far from home. Iowa 27 -- Syracuse 13

Week 3: The only mystery in Iowa bigger than the Hawks is the Cyclones of Iowa State. New coach, new uniforms, but same old task of competing against bigger, faster, stronger Big 12 schools. Playing in Ames will be a hostile wakeup call for Iowa. Iowa 16 -- Iowa State 13

Week 4: Even without Ohio State and Michigan on Iowa's schedule, its still the Big Ten. Iowa's trip to Madison will be a rude one. Wisconsin 31 -- Iowa 21

Week 5: Homecoming in Iowa City. A couple years ago the AD tried to predict what team would be the Big 10's worst in 2007 for the Homecoming game. He chose Indiana. He was wrong, but not by much. Iowa 27 -- Indiana 6

Week 6: Another road game, this time to Happy Valley and home of legendary coach Joe Pa. Like the trip to Wisconsin, Hawk fans hope against hope, and cry in their beer. Penn State 28 -- Iowa 17

Week 7: Back to Iowa City to face the Illini. It will be Illinois first trip to Iowa City without Chief Illiniwiek. Hawk fans are the ones who will be war-dancing. Iowa 38 -- Illinois 24

Week 8: Purdue's Joe Tiller has made a few lists of "coaches on the hot seat." The seat will get warmer after Iowa surprises Purdue in West Lafayette. Iowa 28 -- Purdue 27

Week 9: Michigan State might be the worst team in the conference this year. But will Iowa come home with too big of chip on their shoulders. I say they do, and it costs them the win. MSU 16 -- Iowa 14.

Week 10: For the last three years, Iowa had been black and purpled when Northwestern comes a callin'. Used to be that the Mildcats were an easy win. Now, its anyone's guess. Iowa 21 -- Northwestern 17

Week 11: Floyd went to Minneapolis and stayed there after the game. Enough said. Iowa 34 -- Minnesota 17

Week 12: Iowa schedules a 12th game and gets Western Michigan to come to Iowa City for the big payday. Following the game, Iowa fans muse which warm bowl game will extend an invite to their beloved Hawks. Iowa 31 -- WMU 10

That's 9-3 if you were counting. Here's the proverbial fine print: If Iowa's QB or RB goes down, so does the record. Iowa is gonna have to keep their offense on the field and score some points. If they don't, 9-3 will be 6-6 in a heartbeat.

Now, on with the show.

Cable Television and College Dorm Rooms

2007-08-27T15:00:00.000-05:00

I've chronicled in past articles my thorough dissatisfaction with the cable television industry, but let me list a few grievances again:

In my neighborhood, there is only one source for cable television. So, a monopoly exists.
That company (Mediacom) has raised my cable rate almost 70 percent in the past year, without expanding my coverage.
That company was in a heated dispute with a local network station for more than six months, and did not carry the channel for a portion of that time.
Unrelated (and yet related), as the Iowa Hawkeye football season approaches, it seems unlikely that many of the games will be shown on channels that I currently receive in my home, or that are even available at any price from my cable provider.

The whole thing just disgusts me. But, now there is more.

News from Iowa City this past week is that the dorms at the U of I will receive a cable feed for the Big Ten Network (BTN). The BTN is a new idea that I already dislike. The BTN and Mediacom have been unsuccessfully negotiating for months -- Iowa games airing on the BTN will not be seen in my neighborhood. If the two parties (BTN and Mediacom) do reach a deal, I'm sure it will result in another rate increase (and only available in a new package of networks). But I digress ...

The dorms are getting the BTN, and I'm not. Yet, my tax dollars are surely subsidizing the cost so that a college student can watch something that I can not.

The steep rise in higher education costs have been well-documented. I can understand why. As a student at the University of Northern Iowa, I lived in a small, warm room with a single phone jack and four television channels. Fifteen years later, dorm rooms are equipped with air conditioning, cable tv, and broadband access. I doubt those amenities are donated free of charge by the respective utility company.

So, what is the cost of us non-college students for watching Iowa football this fall? Games could be broadcast on ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU, ABC, and the Big Ten Network.

Mediacom does not have, at any price, a package that includes all these channels.
Dish TV also has yet to sign the BTN. It's package cost for everything but the BTN is $58. Fortunately, for my viewing pleasure, that includes access to a number of Spanish-speaking stations and the "Sirius Metropolitan Opera Channel."
Want to go the Direct TV route? They've got everything I need (and a whole lotta don't needs) for $70, with a cost increase guaranteed after four months.

Looks like I'll be doing a lot of what I did 25 years ago before the invention of cable -- listening to the games on the radio. So much for modernity and free markets.

Laridian Comes Full Circle

2007-08-21T17:21:00.000-05:00

Twelve years and four jobs ago I was a computer software editor at Parsons Technology in Cedar Rapids. If you have been a computer user for the last two decades and like to buy cheap titles, you may have come across the Parsons name. The company, once owned by founder Bob Parsons, became a part of a larger software company, that was purchased by a still larger company, that was purchased by a big toy conglomerate .... The Parsons brand name may still exist somewhere, but the company died years ago.

I worked with a group of 25 or so people under the leadership of Craig Rairdin, creator of the original QuickVerse Bible software. By the time I came around in the mid-90s, the QuickVerse line of products had expanded from the original Windows-based search engine, to hundreds of add-ons. In fact, that was my job -- preparing text that had previously been published in traditional (paper) form for sale as a QuickVerse Library product add-on.

The company was unique for Cedar Rapids. The product was industry-leading. As detailed in paragraph one, both the company and QuickVerse (for all practical purposes) came to an end nearly 10 years ago.

Craig, my good friend Jeff Wheeler, and several others with Parsons' ties then went off and started their own Bible software company, Laridian. Their website can explain the product line better than I can -- I have fallen way behind the technology curve they write for. But essentially, they have created Bibles and related reference material for hand-held devices. Until today.

Today is a day of irony (irony to me, perhaps perfectly planned and executed by Craig and company) -- Laridian released its first Bible software for the computer. In a sense, Laridian has returned to its roots of 20 years ago. The marketplace is far more mature; the technology considerably more advanced. And I'm sure the Laridian folks would be quick to point out that PocketBible for Windows is not just a retread of QuickVerse. But to me, its one of those it's-a-small-world, full-circle things.

Well, anyway, congrats to my former workmates and friends at Laridian. Hope the new product sells well.

Finding a Needle in a Straw Poll

2007-08-20T08:25:00.000-05:00

Iowa's Republican Party straw poll that took place nine days ago is already old news. Since then, every candidate for president from both parties has probably visited the Iowa State Fair and rubbed elbows with the populace that will decide his/her political fate in six months. Yesterday I watched a portion of a Democrat debate broadcast from Drake University in Des Moines.

Declared and not-yet declared candidates have been criss-crossing Iowa since a week after the 2004 presidential election. The activity picked up in July and will continue strong through the January caucus. Iowa, of course, is the first-in-the-nation caucus state. As such, whether rightly or wrongly, presidential candidates spend an enormous amount of time and money among our corn fields and small cities, hoping to claim the first victory toward party nomination.

I recently have had lunch with two good friends. One has likely voted Democrat for president for at least the last 20 years. The other, a staunch Republican voter. Both conversations were friendly and honest when it came to political pontification.

My Democrat friend surprisingly said that among the many candidates he has to choose from, none got him too excited. He made the point, and I agreed, that many of the Democrats have a leg up on any Republican because the current president is so unpopular. Americans voting for "change" may not care who they elect, as long as its not the current party in the White House. In the end, I think we concluded that Mrs. Clinton is the clear front-runner, but John Edwards is a "safe bet" because he is neither black nor a woman (both characteristics may prejudice certain voters). Yet, again, not one of the candidate truly stirred my friend's blood.

Lunch with my Republican friend turned to some of the usual questions among Republican voters. How do you feel about voting for a Mormon (Romney), and how "Mormon" is he? Is Giuliani conservative enough? Is McCain likable enough? Does anyone else in the field even have a chance? Our lunch was prior to the straw poll, and we both felt that if Huckabee or Brownback could make a move and place well, it might jump start his respective campaign. (As it turned out, Huckabee DID place a strong second and HAS seen a lift.) Yet the question remains, are any of these men both desirable and electable.

So, we're left trying to find a needle in the straw polls -- identifying a man or woman that seems honest, displays leadership characteristics, works well with other people, is a problem-solver, and who captures our attention to such a great height that we're willing to brave hot August gymnasiums to listen to stump speeches, and a cold January night to cast a vote.

As for me, I'm still searching.

Mr. Fixit Man

2007-08-16T10:50:00.000-05:00

About three weeks ago we turned our oven on and noticed a small fire through the glass window. Seems the heating element had cracked and the fire was the beginning of an electrical flame-out.

My wife hopped on the phone and found we could get the part and repair for about $100 at Sears (the oven is a Kenmore). I hopped on the Internet to see if we could get a better deal.

I found PartSelect.com, a vendor for thousands of appliance parts. On the website I was able to find our bad part (though it is listed as a Frigidaire part, which is probably a tip-off that our Kenmore is really made by Frigidaire). There was even a short blog-like entry from another consumer that had ordered the part and fixed her oven herself. Looks simple, I thought. So I ordered the part hoping to save myself about $70 (the part itself was $33, including shipping).

The part was to have arrived in three to five days. After eight days of crock-pot cooking and sandwiches, I traced our part through FedEx and found it that it was damaged during shipment and returned to the PartSelect warehouse in Morton, Illinois (about five hours drive from me). I called the PartSelect toll-free number and asked when they would send another. Their CS rep said that they had no knowledge of the part being returned (even though the FedEx shipping info was clear that it had been sent back and received). After being placed on hold for a few minutes, CS said that when a part is returned to their warehouse, it takes 2-3 weeks before it is catalogued. In other words, they had "no way of knowing" that I had not received my part.

On hold again. This time CS said that, though they could not verify the part had been received in the warehouse, they understood my need to fix the oven and would send another part out immediately, with no charge.

This they did, with the part arriving one day later (not the 3-5 days that the first order would have taken). Once received, I fixed my oven in 15 minutes without breaking a sweat or bleeding.

Grades:

A+ for ease of repair
B+ for website ease
F for delivery -- When I received the second part, it was easy to see how the first had been damaged. It came in a flimsy cardboard box that was poorly taped and had no packaging material.
C for customer service. The woman I spoke with was American and sympathetic. The company's inability to better track inventory is surprising.
B overall. I would do it again to save the money, but it was not a perfect experience.

Michael Vick

2007-08-15T07:50:00.001-05:00

You've heard the headlines even if you don't follow professional sports -- NFL quarterback Michael Vick on trial for arranging dogfighting at his property in Virginia.

There are a lot of angles to this story:

Vick is not only the face of the Atlanta Falcons, he is a headliner for the NFL. When he came into the league, he was supposed to revolutionize how the game was played with a quarterback's legs (never mind that Fran Tarkenton did that 40 years ago).
Though Vick is highly publicized, he has arguably never lived up to the hype. Atlanta has been a mostly-average team. Vick's personal statistics do not jump off the page. In fact, his completion percentage is in decline. He is an interesting, but average, QB.
Vick is not yet being accused of betting on the dogfights, rather, just buying the dogs, arranging the fights, watching the dogs die, and burying the dogs. Betting on the fights is another crime alltogether, and apparently one with a stiffer sentence.
If this was snake fighting, would anyone care? Dogfighting is illegal. Is this illegality based on immorality? I suppose you could say it is. If you own a dog, or like dogs, you are far more outraged by this story than those of us who don't count canines as our best friends.
This isn't Vick's only brush with controversy and the law. Last year he was in trouble for making obscene gestures to fans. In January 2007 he was detained for allegedly transporting marijuana through Miami International airport (he was cleared of any wrongdoing). While these incidents do not speak of illegality, they may speak of his character.
Anybody remember Marcus Vicks? That's Michael's younger brother. He too was a star QB at Virginia Tech. But the younger Vick was dismissed form the Hokies for a series of boo-boos. First, he was arrested and suspended in 2004. Then in '05, he roughed up an opposing player, intentionally stomping on the leg of a player who had tackled him. Then, another arrest, for driving with a suspended license. I wouldn't be surprised is his grades were less than stellar, too. Now, Michael is Michael, and Marcus is Marcus, but the behavior of each seems to reflect the values of the other.

As I've written before, the bottom line with guys like Michael Vick is that they are living in sin, without regard to the consequences. They do not report to God ... they are men unto their own. There is no moral absolute -- I'll do what I want, when I want to do it, and try to skirt the consequences when they come.

Vick will win sympathy votes because, by all accounts, his upbringing was poor and very difficult. In fact, we should feel sympathy for any child in those circumstances. But Vick is no longer financially poor, just morally bankrupt. If we wish to feel anything for Vick, it should be hope that he will surrender his life to the highest moral authority -- Jesus -- and that future chapters of his story will reflect the miracle of God's grace.

That doesn't exclude the nature of his present predicament. The legal system should run its course. If appropriate, he should be found guilty and imprisoned (others that have been charged are essentially pleading guilty and plea bargaining lesser sentences). He should never play professional football again. He will serve as a reminder that no one is above the law.

Camping 101

2007-08-14T08:14:00.000-05:00

What's been happening these last two months, you might wonder? We went camping. Not for two months ... just two days this past weekend.

Our church family took the weekend and travelled to Wyoming, IA to take in God's creation. It was the first time the Hagerman family has been camping, and only the second time I have ever slept outside away from my own backyard. Here's a few observations:

First off, it was HOT. Those of you not familar with Iowa may not appreciate how sticky it can get in these parts. The temp was in the low 90s, with a heat index (combo of temp and humidity) in the 100s. Unlike the desert southwest, Iowa heat is wet heat, not dry heat. Even when we weren't moving, we were sweating.
If you're not used to tent sleeping (like me), it can drive you mad. The combination of sleeping a couple inches off the ground, listening to the insects, feeling your sleeping bag turn wet with dew, and the stifling heat was too much for me. The first night out I didn't sleep a wink. The second night, maybe three hours. By God's grace I wasn't a complete beast to be around.
Be careful about parking your tent, and your car, under walnut trees. Nuts dropping in the middle of the night on the roof of a van sound like a shotgun blast.
I now know what a millipede looks like. The campground was covered with these unusual looking wormlike creatures. The rumor that they are poisonous wasn't exactly true, but I wasn't interested in finding out for myself.
I also now know what poison ivy looks like. It was everywhere, but not discovered until a few hours AFTER all the kids began running around without their shoes. No reported cases of itching yet ...
Eating is hard work. You pack all the food into coolers and totes, transport it to the campsite, unpack it, cook it, eat it, pack it back up, wash ... and repeat several times a day. Before we left I told Michelle it would be a good time for a 48-hour fast. I was right.
I'm not as young as I used to be. Those who know me and my history of back problems are not surprised by this statement. The combination of sleeping arrangements and physical activity was more than my L5 S1 disc could handle. By Sunday morning it was everything I could do to just straighten up.
We're counting the days until we go back. We weren't in the van returning home more than 10 minutes before the kids asked, "Will we be doing this again next summer? Pleeeeaaaaassssseeee!" Yes, I suppose we will. There are few things better in life than creating family memories with some of your best friends in tow.

Bring Back the Table Games

2007-06-13T09:06:00.000-05:00

The story goes that the board game Monopoly became the hit that it is because our suffering, depression-era populace embraced the notion that with a roll of the dice they could own Boardwalk. Monopoly has sold a kajillion copies, and the modern-day marketing strategy has been to create "Dogopoly," "Hawkeyeopoly," "Elvisopoly," and "Wrigleyopoly," (just to name a few).

In the 1980s, breakout games were Pictionary and Trivial Pursuit. I remember Pictionary parties among my high school friends (some even taking place in my bed prior to back surgery). And Trivial Pursuit .... the original Genus Edition was tough for a teenager. Every roll needed to be red (that was the sports category) for me to have a chance. But even then, it was a crapshoot (red also included "recreation" questions, which most often were related to recipes of mixed drinks). Like Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit has stayed relevent for three decades by developing niche editions -- trivia for every decade, trivia for genres of music, trivia for sports.

With the advent of the computer and assorted videogame platforms, games played around the kitchen table seem nearly extinct. Unfortunately, most computer games don't allow family and friends to interact quite like a rousing table game.

We're still table game players at our house (sometimes to Michelle's agony). Here's a few titles we enjoy as a family:

Settlers of Catan -- As a settler of the island of Catan, you build cities, roads and special developments by accumulating the natural resources depicted on a customized game board. While you compete against other players, you don't actually eliminate anyone, so it's a great family game because there is no real loser. Our kids (10 and 7) enjoy it as much as the adults. The only negative -- it is an expensive "specialty" game, and playing with more than four players requires an expensive add-on.

High Bid -- Made by 3M in the 60s, High Bid is an auction-style card game. Players bid to own individual cards that depict a part of a collection (books, jewelry, silver dishes, etc.) Once the collection is complete, you earn a big bonus. The winner is the one with the highest combination of cash and complete collections. We've only recently taught this one to the kids. Michelle likes it because, as she says, its one of the few games she can beat me at :-)

Sorry!, Life, Monopoly, Clue -- All games that I played as a child we now play with our children. We're just about past the Sorry! stage (no loveloss there).

Killer Bunnies -- Actually, we haven't played this with the kids, but with our friends the Reedy's. Another card game, this time with the object of winning the magic carrot by accumulating as many bunny cards as possible. But look out, some cards allow you to off another player's rabbit, hence the "Killer Bunnies" title. Lot's of fun and fast moving.

These are a few of our current favorites. What are your past and present table game tales?

Nice Bass

2007-06-05T16:09:00.000-05:00

Twenty five years ago my dad and I did a lot of fishing. Note, we didn't do much "catching" -- just the throw-your-line-in part, followed by the reel-your-line-in part. He being a teacher, I being 12, and neither of us owning a boat, we would tromp through the weeds out at Pleasant Creek (mostly at dawn or dusk) to reach a cove of some sort that looked promising from a distance. Occasionally a fish would mistakenly take our bait and we'd have a catfish or crappie to clean. Rarely did we have two.

I am now my dad, and the kids are me. We go to Pleasant Creek and catch lots of sticks and water grass, but few fish.

There are two ingrediants necessary for really good fishing in Iowa. The first is water temperature. When the calendar hits mid-June and the water is warm to the touch, the fish stop biting. The second is a good fishing hole, preferably a well-stocked, semi-private farm pond.

Last Saturday, we had both, and we had fun.

We caught fish. Big fish, little fish; blue fish, yellow fish. Fish that flop, fish that do not. Fish that like worms, fish that squirm. Fish with flair ... fish were everywhere!

For one hour on Saturday night, we must have caught a fish every minute. For my part, I caught the biggest bass of my life -- an 18-20 incher that must have weighed 4-5 pounds. The kids each caught a few too. It was ... fabufishious.

(The Adventureland day was great too. More on that in a future post.)

Rite of Passage

2007-05-30T08:15:00.000-05:00

The Hagerman's plan to be swept up by a tornado around 10:30 tomorrow morning, lifted a hundred feet above ground, and plunged to our certain death ... voluntarily.

My children, just as their father and mother before them, will complete a children's rite of passage Thursday when we step out of the car in Altoona, and walk through the gates of Iowa's most recognizable man-made attraction -- Adventureland.

"Adventureland, where you can ride the tornado,
See a family show or hear a rock n' roll band."

That's how the commercial jingle went two decades ago when I visited the family-owned theme park for the first time. I don't remember my age -- perhaps 12. I do, however, remember my encounter with the Tornado.

The Tornado is the park's foremost roller coaster -- a wooden relic once listed as one of the 10 best in the country. With advances in technology and thrill-ology, the Tornado now would be described as "quaint." But, it was (and I suspect still is) as much as I could handle. Like many coasters, the ride begins as your car slowly climbs a steep hill. A slight pause at the top ... and whoosh ... down you go. A few twists, another climb and fall, and you stumble off the ride. Two minutes of sheer fun (or terror, depending on perspective).

Adventureland is not Walt Disney World, or even on par with other Midwest parks like Six Flags. But it is all-Iowa. It's a nice place to visit, an oasis of fun in a state sometimes criticized for not having enough to do. I expect that my children will repeatedly smash my front fender on the bumper cars, yearn to get soaked in the Raging River, and walk out of the Silly Silo feeling ... silly (aka dizzy and sick to your stomach). And when they do, they will experience what their dad experienced 25 years ago.

They can't wait, and truth be told, neither can I.

Cellphones and Cable -- Part II

2007-05-24T11:10:00.000-05:00

Eastern Iowan's and readers of my blog may remember the winter-months tussle between Sinclair Communications (owners of local station KGAN) and Mediacom (the only cable provider available in many areas of Cedar Rapids). As near as I understood, Sinclair wanted to charge Mediacom for use of its transmission, while Mediacom wasn't particularly interested in paying for something that broadcast television provides consumers for free. After months of he said/she said name-calling, the boxers reached some sort of compromise a couple of days prior to the Super Bowl.

It's hard to know which entity took the bigger public relations hit -- the monopolistic cable company that resorted to handing out free antennas and frozen pizzas to its customers, or hard-nosed Sinclair, whose executives were on record as saying that they could shut down the Cedar Rapids station and it wouldn't hurt their bottom line one bit. At the very least, you might assume that both Mediacom and Sinclair would now be interested in regaining the good graces of their customers. Well, you've heard that ol' saying about what happens when you assume ...

Instead, Mediacom decided that this was an ideal time to raise its rates on basic cable customers like myself.

Now, what do you suppose I might consider a "fair" rate raise -- 5-10 percent? Yep, that sounds fair to me.

How about 56 percent? Fifty six percent is, in fact, the increase I noted on my May bill.

Let's break that down just a bit. The actual cost of the package is $20 (then Mediacom and the government add a slough of taxes and fees that no one understands). Here's what I get for my $20, plus tax and "tip":

The CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, Ion, WB, and Iowa Public Television affiliates that I'm supposed to receive without the benefit of cable.
WGN and TBS, the superstations that have been part of basic cable since cable was, uhhh, basic.
Three or four shopping channels that I only peruse when there is a commercial break in my preferred programming.
A local access feed from Kirkwood Community College, and a local feed from the University of Iowa.
A local Mediacom channel that often shows replays of University of Iowa sports, local high school activities, and locally-produced sports talk shows.
What else ... CNBC? Not sure if that's it or not. No, I'll bet its CNN ... or C-SPAN. Well, it's one of those. These days, its wall-to-wall programming of the "Road to the White House." It's not necessarily the 2008 road to the White House though -- I think I've recently seen replays of Howard Dean and John Kerrey campaign speeches from '04.

That's it. In all, I pay about $1 per channel. Of those channels I might ever really watch, I pay two bucks. But of those channels that I might watch, AND come exclusively to me through cable programming, my per station cost jumps to nearly $7. Ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch, ouch (one stab in the back for each dinero).

I would like SOOOOO much to become a FORMER Mediacom customer. But since EVERYONE now subscribes to cable or satellite television, TV manufacturers only include the weeniest of antennas with their sets. And, if I go to Radio Shack and buy an antennae, where am I going to put it? It doesn't fit very neatly inside my entertainment center, nor does it look particularly attractive sitting on top of the it.

So, thanks Mediacom. You've got me right where you want me -- dependent on your service, yet hating my dependency.

Cellphones and Cable

2007-05-21T07:55:00.000-05:00

Within the last two months two of my service providers have taken a wrong turn in the public relations and pricing departments.

I have been an ATT Wireless customer for four years. The company has had four names during that time, but I have had the same phone and same plan. My plan provided 300 minutes per month for a fee of $30, plus unlimited night and weekend minutes. It has been unusual that I exceed more than 100 minutes of calling, so the plan was a good one for someone like me who only calls occasionally. I never bothered to upgrade the phone because I didn't need to, although I have looked enviously at the newer phones of my friends, with their latest technology and slim design.

With my January 07 bill I began to receive messages from ATT that my analog phone and plan were being discontinued sometime prior to January 2008, and that I should plan to upgrade. Of course, their digital plans are all more expensive and would place me under a new contract. Then, in April, my current plan cost was changed so that it was $5 more, with the same warnings that the plan would be discontinued soon.

Well, that was enough for me to begin looking. A rate hike, another rate hike coming, a two-year commitment, and still the same lousy coverage (I've always felt that the coverage area even in twon wasn't very good).

I checked in with every company that has a plan in my zip code. In the end, I strolled up to the counter of a mall kiosk and purchased a new phone and plan with I-Wireless. Same 300 minutes a month, all digital network, no roaming, and nights beginning at 5 p.m., all for the same $30 I was paying before. The phone, which is basic (no cameras or video recording) was free with a two-year commitment.

Three weeks into the deal I am very happy. I've had a good signal everywhere I have called from, and the portage of my number was smooth. I like the fact that I-Wireless is an Iowa-based company (though it is a subsidiary partner of foreign company T-Mobile).

As for ATT ... I would think that with adances in technology and the desire to expand their customer base, they would have found a way to keep me, instead of forcing my hand.

Next, I'll let you know about the latest Mediacom debacle.

Nice Gig if You can Get It

2007-05-07T08:08:00.000-05:00

How would you like to make $5,714 for every second of real work that you do? That's about what Roger Clemens is going to make beginning June 1.

Clemens is a 45 year-old Major League pitcher with a Hall of Fame career in his rear view mirror. Two years ago he retired, only to be lured out of retirement by the Houston Astros when they promised to pay him an unbelievable amount of money and leave him alone on the days he didn't have to pitch (Clemens' home is in Houston and he didn't want to be bothered by traveling out of town with the team if he wasn't going to play).

That scenario, apparently, worked out well for both the 'Stros and Clemens. So well, that he's going to try it again this year. But the New York Yankees, a former team of Clemens, came in with such a doozy of an offer that ol' Roger is temporarily moving to the Big Apple.

Warning: unreliable math ahead
Clemens is going to be paid about $18 million over the course of the season between June and October. Let's break that number down using some performance assumptions:

If Clemens makes 30 starts, he'll be paid $600,000 per start
If he pitches an average of seven innings per start, he'll make $85,714 per inning
If he makes 15 pitches per inning, that comes to $5,714 per pitch
If his ratio of strikes to balls is 2/1, he'll make $571 per usable pitch
If he wins 2/3 of his starts that's $900,000 per win

Oh, and Clemens doesn't have to fly with the team on their private jet during those brutal road trips.

Fathers, have you played catch with your sons today? Might be a good time to see what kind of an arm junior has.

The War Vote

2007-05-02T14:04:00.000-05:00

Over the course of the last three days, the US House of Representatives voted to provide continued funding for the war in Iraq contigent upon a specific troop withdrawal date; the President vetoed the bill; and Congress sustained the veto.

Now that lines have been clearly drawn in the sand, the President is asking for, "goodwill on both sides that we can move beyond political statements and agree on a bill that gives our troops the funds and flexibility to do the job that we asked them to do." Well, that seems reasonable.

But, how do we arrive at "goodwill?" Democratic leaders fired back at the president by saying he has, "turned a tin ear to the wishes of the American people." (Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif.) That sounds like goodwill to me, how about you?

This is just typical political-speak -- here's the part I really like. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (that's the head Democrat running the House of Representatives) said the Dems will have another war funding bill out soon. It will likely ask for $100 billion or more for troop funding, and some sort of gesture from the President that troops will be sent home in a reasonable time period. Oh, and Stoyer says the bill will also contain legislation for a minimum wage increase.

What??? A minimum wage increase?

Yep. That's pretty logical really ... anyone can see the correlation between funding for troops currently stationed in Baghdad and raising the federal minimum wage are issues, right?

This is how the game is played in our nation's capital -- if the President wants one thing, he has to ante up with something else. So, our troops get money if a high school dropout working at McDonalds gets another 50 cents an hour.

Strike you as ludicrous? And politicians wonder why the voting populace is a little skeptical?

-- Quotes taken from article by Charles Babington , Associated Press

Go, Go, Go Joseph!

2007-04-27T08:24:00.000-05:00

Jam Theatricals brought the Broadway musical Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat to Cedar Rapids' Paramount Theatre last night, complete with Elvis impersonator and the most brightly sequined coat you've ever laid your eyes on.

Our attendance was a birthday present for Michelle. Back in February I presented her with two choices -- the Newsboys in March or Joseph in April. She couldn't pass up the song and dance of Joseph, so we joined 1,800 other Cedar Rapidian's for the musical telling of the Biblical story of Joseph.

The musical is short on plot details, but generally recounts the plight of Joseph, the 11th of 12 sons born to the Hebrew patriarch Jacob. Joseph is loved by his father, but despised by his jealous brothers. Joseph is sold by his brothers into slavery, sensuously tempted by his boss' wife, correctly interprets (with God's help) the dreams of the Egyptian Pharaoh's butler and baker, and ends up serving alongside Pharaoh undertaking "the first recorded rationing" in world history. (See Genesis ch 38-40 for the full story)

This is my fourth exposure to Joseph. The first was as a high school student, watching a troupe of high school and college students perform. I immediately fell in love with the music, the story, and the relative simplicity of the production (it was originally written in shorter form and intended for performance by school and church groups). Next, Michelle and I watched a Broadway tour of the show about 10 years ago. The late 90's saw a Joseph revival that featured Donny Osmond, captured on DVD. And now this.

Michelle and I agreed that the production value of this particular rendition was just average. More than Michelle, I felt the lead actors were also just average. Adam Ryan Tackett's Joseph was a little effeminate, and his voice week on some songs. Clarissa Grace as the Narrator (the role that weaves the story together from song to song) was fine but not spectacular. Each lead has a song or two they get to belt out with all their might, and they rose to the task. But in the show's quieter moments, both lacked a certain quality I can't quite put my finger on (I did catch myself wondering a time or two if this man playing Joseph was gay, and how pitifully ironic that would be). Also, unlike other productions I've seen, this one did not feature a children's choir (usually a local group that joins the tour on stage for several numbers). As always, the role of Pharaoh (an over-the-top impersonation of 1970's era Elvis Presley) stole the show, even though this particular Elvis (Matt O'Brien) didn't look like, or sound like, the King.

One reason (maybe a big reason) for my slight disappointment was a misunderstanding of who was currently touring. Several months ago the role of Joseph belonged to Patrick Cassidy, youngest of the 70's Cassidy singing/acting clan, and the role of the Narrator was filled by a former American Idol finalist. These are the two actors I was expecting Thursday night, but a quick look at the playbill confirmed otherwise. I was ready for some well-known talent, and settled for off-Broadway no-namers.

But in the end, it didn't matter much. What sets Joseph apart is that it is a fun, energetic, colorful, and mostly accurate retelling of an inspiring Bible story -- that God did (and does) work miracles in the lives of His people, and that when every door seems to be closed, God can open a new door filled with great promise.

The Dead Tree

2007-04-25T09:18:00.000-05:00

When we moved into our Marion home 18 months ago, I noted that the two trees in our front yard didn't look very healthy. Both were ash trees about 30 years-old. What should have been good shade trees were now nearly bare branches. Last spring I had hoped to see a change, but sadly, the trees' leaves came and went quickly. Last week, I paid a man $325 to come remove the trees from our front yard. Now, we have no shade.

I've been thinking about those trees and about what happened to them. Trees that grew from little seedlings to 30 feet, only to become sick and die. Trees that were grown to serve a purpose (provide shade to a yard), but became useless after a time.

Is there a spiritual metaphor here? Yep.

Jesus talked about trees often -- the gospel writers all record tree stories. One of these examples is in Luke 13.

Then [Jesus] told this parable: "A man had a fig tree, planted in his vineyard, and he went to look for fruit on it, but did not find any. So he said to the man who took care of the vineyard, 'For three years now I've been coming to look for fruit on this fig tree and haven't found any. Cut it down! Why should it use up
the soil?' "'Sir,' the man replied, 'leave it alone for one more year, and I'll dig around it and fertilize it. If it bears fruit next year, fine! If not, then cut it down.'"

What was the lesson of Jesus' story? Perhaps the tree represents the religious leaders of his day; men who were planted and mature but were bearing no fruit. These men are of no use to Jesus, and so He commands that they be "cut down," presumably so that another tree could be planted in the same soil and bear more fruit.

That's exactly why I cut my own trees down -- they were no longer producing fruit (in my case shade), and now I will plant another tree in the same soil that has the potential to provide more shade.

In a spiritual sense, do we know any unfruitful trees -- religious people who are taking up space in a church, but are not being very fruitful? Are you and I like that?

Its easy to become complacent, to put our faith on autopilot and just keep doing the same thing week after week, year after year. Our fruit yield diminishes -- maybe dries up completely -- but we don't notice because it happened so gradually.

The Apostle Paul says in Acts 20,

"I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me -- the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace."

This is just one of several times that Paul equates our Christian life to a race. Paul recognized the value of running until the race was completed -- being fruitful until the day of his death. We would do well to follow Paul's example and emulate his attitiude that our life means nothing unless we are fruitful to the end.

Virginia Tech

2007-04-19T08:34:00.000-05:00

Any social commentator alive is required to write about the happenings at Virginia Tech University -- it says so on the social commentator union card. Here's my two cents ...

First, its obvious that the real culprit here is the President of the United States. Preventing a 23-year old with a history of anger and psychosis from going mental clearly falls within the responsibility of George Bush. He has failed us again .... (Don't bet your lunch the Democrats won't find a way to take this approach.)

Now, in all seriousness, shouldn't we be surprised that this doesn't happen more often?

There are thousands of colleges and universities across the country playing host to millions of young men and women between 18-23 years-old. Some of those students fail a test now and again. More than one have a nasty breakup with a boyfriend/girlfriend. A few might not receive the scholarship they hoped for, or the student government seat, or the starting position on the sports team. There is disappointment in life, and it is a plausable theory that some young adults may not have the emotional maturity to handle such defeats.

This is compounded, of course, by the number of young adults who don't have much spiritual maturity, or a belief in absolute truth. Who is to say that murder is wrong? God? OK, but what if you don't believe in God, or any other spiritual value system? In the absence of such belief, doesn't a Lord of the Flies mentality reign -- every person for himself, and throw the consequences to the wind?

It is a tragedy, of course, for the victim's and their families. Those that have personal ties to Virginia Tech are certainly grieving, and soon will be looking for answers. Theories will abound concerning campus security, gun control laws, immigration and the like. For my money, I think its as simple as this:

Youthful immaturity
+ Disappointment with life
+ Lack of spiritual relationship with God
+ Society's growing acceptance of violence
--------------------------------------
Pending disasters

Again, my premise -- shouldn't we be surprised that this kind of thing doesn't happen more often?

Serving the Church

2007-04-16T10:04:00.000-05:00

I was going to write about Don Imus today, but he's such an easy target to pick on that I changed my mind.

I thought instead I would let my friends out there know that our church officially asked me yesterday to serve it as a deacon. After our morning worship time, one woman greeted me by saying, "I don't know if that's a promotion ... congratulations." I told her it was probably a demotion! All joking aside, I appreciate the recognition and responsibilities that may follow.

From a Biblical point of view, deacons are simply men (and women) that are recognized by the church "pastors" and elders" (two terms for the same thing) as being men of character that serve other members of the church. Examples of who and what deacons are can be found in Acts ch. 6 and 1 Timothy 3.

Practically speaking, deacons essentially work alongside the elders to accomplish the ministries and works of service the church is committed to. In a church of any size, the number of men recognized as elders is probaby insufficient to lead every work of the church. And so, deacons come alongside to support, and in some cases represent, the elders.

I do not "aspire" to serve a church as a deacon. Rather, it is my desire to simply serve however I am able, however I am gifted, and continue to grow in my spiritual maturity. Certainly, wearing the title of deacon may present some circumstances and challenges that are new. But by in large, I anticipate just doing more of the same -- serving Christ with my church family.

Promises, Promises

2007-04-10T12:02:00.000-05:00

You made me, Promises Promises,
You knew you'd never keep.
Promises Promises,
Why do I believe?
-- from the 1980's song by Naked Eyes

Since the week of the NCAA men's Final Four basketball tourney there have been an unending stream of coaches leaving one college and going to another. Right behind has been the stream of players that had signed scholarshi offers with school A, but changed their mind when the coach left, and now want to play for school B. Of course, some of this is going on in my own backyard at the University of Iowa. Steve Alford was under contract to coach the Hawkeyes for another 5 years. Several high school seniors signed up to play basketball for Iowa. Word today is that at least one player is asking to be released from his commitment, presumably because Alford is no longer the coach.

There are a lot of promises in college athletics that people know they are unlikely to keep. Will new Iowa coach Todd Likliter stay at Iowa for the full eight years of his contract? He will until he gets a better offer. How about the "lifetime" contract that is reportably being offered to USC football coach Pete Carroll? Will he really never coach anywhere else before he dies? Hmph. And what of these high school seniors who don the cap of their chosen college, only to leave when the coach does, or to bolt early because they've got a shot at professional athletics? Iowa probably spends $60,000 on a four-year athletic scholarship. Other schools, like USC or Notre Dame, are surely three times that amount. And for what? To be the temporary stepping stone for a kid in expensive sneakers?

Some would say that in "today's world," we can't expect these kinds of promises to be kept. "That's just absurd," said one radio sports analyst today.

I can see why he would say that -- the value of a promise certainly isn't what it used to be. Take marriage, for example. Till death do you part? Um hmm. I guess that sounds better than "Until you get fat," "Until you get old," "As long as you make good money," or "As long as I 'love' you." Half the people who say, "Till death do us part," break their promise. (Now, I'm not condemning those who divorce. I understand that things can happen. Though God clearly does not condone divorce except in certain circumstances, neither do I believe it is an unpardonable sin.)

What is the solution with these coaches and players? Well, I think accountability has to start with the coaches and the universities. If a coach signs a six-year contract for $1 million a year, he/she should stick to it. If the coach is fired after four years, the university owes him $2 million. If the coach leaves after four years on his own accord, he owes the university $2 million. How can we penalize the kids breaking scholarship promises, if the adults aren't setting a better standard?

The bottom line is this ... as naive as it surely is, we shouldn't be satisfied to live in a world where a promise is empty. How did we get to this place, and why did we allow our values of honesty and integrity to be chipped away over the decades? Shame on us for not keeping our end of the bargain.

Zach Johnson and the Masters

2007-04-09T13:46:00.000-05:00

Its a stereotypical assumption that men across America sit around on Thanksgiving Day watching football after a big meal. The scene was similar yesterday -- men (and women) enjoying America's most endearing event in golf, the Masters, on Easter Sunday. For Cedar Rapidians, yesterday was especially captivating, as homeboy hero Zach Johnson held off the world's best to win his first major.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about how we live vicariously through the accomplishments of others, and even take some sense of pride in their success. Surely everyone in this Iowa community of 125,000, even those of us who have never met Mr. Johnson, was bursting at the seams.

Johnson is the first Iowan to win the Masters, and the second Iowan to ever win one of golf's most prestigious tourneys. Most of the nation's elite linksters hail from southern states where the courses are open year-round. Iowa is good for just six months of golf -- mid-April through mid-October. Even then, you might get snowed on, or lose your ball in a pile of fallen maple leaves. Serious golfers don't come from our neck of the woods very often. If so, they have left Iowa years ago.

Johnson's story is a good one -- a relative unknown who wasn't good enough to earn a scholarship at his college of choice (the University of Iowa), who played in anonymity for several years trying to earn his way onto the PGA tour, who has just a single tour win to his credit. In interviews after the last putt he described himself as "just your average guy from Iowa." A local sports reporter added, "He's the kind of guy Iowan's would want to have representing them."

All this is great stuff. But what most resonated with me was Johnson's recognition that golf was the second most important event of the day. The first was the Easter celebration of Jesus the Messiah rising from a tomb in Jerusalem about 1,982 years ago. Johnson went the extra distance in the spiritual department on this Sunday. Not only did he mention that "Someone was watching over me," as so many people do in vague reference to God, " but Johnson added that his faith was in Jesus. In this "Christian nation," God is often called out. Jesus, however, is not.

Some might say that Zach Johnson is "this" or "that" when it comes to his faith. I don't know him personally, so I can't say anothing about that. But I do know that his testimony was a good one on Easter Sunday -- the underdog Iowan who proclaims Jesus as his Lord, conquers Augusta National.

Laughing at the Television

2007-04-05T08:14:00.000-05:00

The hosts of a radio call-in show this morning were discussing their favorite sitcom television shows of all-time. Such lists are, of course, subjective, and vary in large part because we all grow up in different eras with different shows. Someone out there might have McHale's Navy on their list ... I don't. But here are a few shows that have made me laugh.

The Honeymooners: Certainly not a show of my generation, but an early television gem that should appeal to any generation. If memory serves correct, there were only something like 40 original episodes of the Honeymooners created, and I don't know how many of those I've actually seen. But oh, are they funny. Jackie Gleason and Art Carney were the Odd Couple before the Odd Couple, the Jerry and Kramer before Jerry Seinfeld was even born. I was introduced to the Honeymooners because it would often be shown by WGN television in the 80's when the Chicago Cubs games were on rain delay.

M*A*S*H: I didn't see the movie version of MASH until I was in college. I was really disappointed. The television show was far more humorous, atleast in its early years. MASH has probably been on TV every day of my teenage and adult life, and I've seen every episode so many times that I can tell my wife the plot line just seconds into the show. Perhaps no comedy was as sucessful as MASH in replacing its departing cast. I laughed at Major Burns, but also Charles Emerson Winchester. But MASH was on a few years too long, and became less funny and more political as the years went on. Bummer.

All in the Family: I don't recall watching AITF growing up. The language of the show is course, and the subject matter pretty adult. But the verbal and facial expressions of Carol O'Connor as Archie Bunker are hysterical. It doesn't matter how many times you've heard it -- when Archie yells to Edith, "Stifle yourself!" the smile and belly laugh comes.

The Wonder Years: Ion Television (the former PAX) has recently begun showing reruns of this 80's sitcom, and I've been reminded how much I enjoyed it. Its run was limited because its child actors matriculated from junior high through high school, and the show was basically about growing up as a teen during the late 1960's. The humor most often resulted from the voiceovers -- the television audience was privy to the unspoken thoughts of Kevin Arnold, which were usually sarcastic remarks about his friends, his gym teacher, and his brother Wayne.

Seinfeld: For the sake of limiting this list to five shows, I've saved the best for last. Seinfeld is near the top of everyone's list for funny, unless you thoroughly hated the show. There is no in-between for Jerry, George, Kramer, and Elaine -- either you loved the show or never got into it at all. I was all in. Admittingly, their are certain shows with certain subject matter that are crass and make me uncomfortable. But on the balance, there is no show that makes me laugh as hard and as often as Seinfeld. As Michelle will attest, when Rusty the horse has a gastrointestinal reaction to Beeferino, I nearly have a bladder problem (even now that I've seen the show a dozen times or more).

Perhaps the Odd Couple, the Bob Newhart Show, Cheers, or Happy Days would make your list. How 'bout it?

Charlie Tharp

2007-03-26T13:43:00.000-05:00

I attended a funeral today for Charles Tharp, a 76 year-old man who died of a heart attack last week. "Charlie" was a church friend I've known most my life.

We were encouraged at the funeral to share our stories about Charlie -- our memories about his life and personality. If I had spoken, I would have mentioned two things specifically.

First, Charlie and I played softball together. He was a fastpitch pitcher for 50 years. I was a teammate for the last few years he was active, playing for a church team and various local company teams. What I remember most about our softball experiences was our trip to the Anamosa State Penitentiary. I was 17, and Charlie had a team that was going in to play against a team of inmates. It was a little intimidating ... it was the most hostile group of people I had ever played any sports activity in front of. But Charlie "protected" me -- told me what I could expect, and stayed close by throughout the afternoon. He took me under his wing and helped me have fun.

Secondly, and most importantly, Charlie was an encourager. As a young man just out of college, I returned to my home church and began to fill the role of songleader. I was high energy and modest talent (still am). Each Sunday, Charlie would come slap me on the back and say "Great job," and "Keep up the good work." Over the years, as I would become concerned about trying to make everyone happy with my songleading skills (a no-win proposition), Charlie would continue to encourage me. In recent years, on the two or three occasions I have gone back to visit my old church, Charlie would be one of the first to greet me and ask how things were going.

Encouragers are great people to have around. With so many things in life that can become discouraging from time to time, we need guys like Charlie to come tell us that we are appreciated. He did that for me, and I suspect many others.

I trust that Charlie, who accepted Christ as his Savior 50 years ago, is enjoying himself now. I'm glad to have known him and called him "friend."

Taking Pride in Others' Achievements

2007-03-20T15:39:00.000-05:00

Ever watch a reality TV show like Survivor (I watch) or American Idol (I don't watch), pick a favorite contestant, and then ride a wave of emotion with them as they compete? Do you feel good when they do well, and feel bad when they don't? Does your own self worth swell or shrink as a total stranger succeeds or fails?

It's funny how we take pride in the achievements of others, almost as though we somehow had something to do with their accomplishments. This past week the Linn-Mar High School boys basketball team won the Iowa class 4A (large school) state championship. It was the second championship in four years for a school that had last won the whole banana in 1983. I watched the broadcast of the game and, as it became apparant that the Lions were going to win, I felt pretty good about the state of the world. Because, Linn-Mar isn't just any school -- it's my alma mater, class of 1988.

I haven't watched a Linn-Mar basketball game in person since 1991. The last time I played in a Linn-Mar basketball game was 1985, as a high school freshman (I could shoot, but I was slow and didn't anticipate the game very well). The youngest brothers and sisters of my classmates have long since graduated. The coaching staff has changed over several times. I don't even remotely know a soul associated with the program. And yet, somehow I feel good knowing that "my" team won. It's shameful, really.

But aren't we all like that, to some degree? We live vicariously through others and revel in their glory. Likewise, we nearly fall apart when we ... I mean they, fail. Case in point: Kinnick Stadium every other Saturday afternoon from September through November. You'd think the Hawkeyes were a team of 70,000, not the 80 or so that suit up. And when we ... I mean, they, fail ... the sky falls.

Our esteems are fragile. We take a beating every day at the hands of those who have no idea that they have hurt our feelings and crushed our egos. So, when we can siphen just a little glory out of a situation even remotely tied to us, we take it and run, thank you very much. Go directly pass go and collect $200. I'd like to buy a vowel, Pat. An "I," as in, "I am important."

Well, kudos and "great job" to the boys at Linn-Mar. I'm glad I was able to pull you through to victory. I would have preferred that we won by a few more points -- that's something we can work on for next year. I'll look for my strand of the Wells Fargo Arena championship net in the mailbox soon.

Homosexuality. Immoral?

2007-03-13T11:40:00.000-05:00

From today's headlines...

"Pace Won't Apologize for Gay Remark"

Senior aides to the chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff said Tuesday that Marine Gen. Peter Pace won't apologize for calling homosexuality immoral — an opinion that gay advocacy groups deplored.

In a newspaper interview Monday, Pace had likened homosexual acts to adultery and said the military should not condone it by allowing gays to serve openly in the armed forces. "As an individual, I would not want (acceptance of gay behavior) to be our policy, just like I would not want it to be our policy that if we were to find out that so-and-so was sleeping with somebody else's wife, that we would just look the other way, which we do not. We prosecute that kind of immoral behavior," Pace said.

"General Pace's comments are outrageous, insensitive and disrespectful to the 65,000 lesbian and gay troops now serving in our armed forces," the advocacy group Servicemembers Legal Defense Network said in a statement on its Web site.

"General Pace's statements aren't in line with either the majority of the public or the military," said Massachusetts Democrat Rep. Martin Meehan. "He needs to recognize that support for overturning (the policy) is strong and growing" and that the military is "turning away good troops to enforce a costly policy of discrimination."

--------------------------------

Where do I begin? I'm not going to go to the Bible to prove the immorality of homosexuality. I could, but I won't. Its in there. Anyone who cares about the integrity of the Bible knows its in there. Anyone who doesn't care about the integrity of the Bible isn't going to be persuaded about anything if I quote chapter and verse.

Has the General been, "outrageous, insensitive and disrespectful" with his comments? Only if you are gay. And if you are, Pace will never appease you, because you and he don't see eye to eye on this question of morality.

The gay community wants to be able to live as they wish, marry as they wish, receive employment benefits as they wish, and serve in the military as they wish, and not have Pace express his opinion that he disagrees. They want total and complete freedom, but stand ready to silence Pace's opinion (or paint him publicly as a fool, a prude, a homophobe, or an unreasonable excuse for a human being).

How about the Democrat's assertion that, "General Pace's statements aren't in line with either the majority of the public or the military." I don't know if that's true or not. I hope not, but "the majority of the public" has fooled me before.

I applaud Pace for stating his principles clearly and with conviction, knowing that he is now in the targets of every liberal cause and advocacy group. Won't be long before his resignation is demanded (probably has already been reported somewhere).

Spring

2007-03-05T09:08:00.000-06:00

Apparently, three robins were lost this morning. They were sitting in a tree near my parking lot, basking in the glow of the overcast skies and 22 degree temps. There woudn't have been any reason for the birds to be on the ground -- good luck pecking through the frozen grass to find worms.

Robins in Iowa are generally a sign that spring is on the way. Since our winter weather came late and with a vengeance, robins seem out of place at the moment. For many Iowans, spring is the favorite season. Snow is replaced by rain, brown grass by green, tulips and daffodils make their appearances ... it's a grand show. The doldrums of winter, which include weight gain and a certain level of depressions for many, give way to cheery greetings, new diet and exercise programs, and outside activity (minus the snow shovel). Turning the page to March also signifies that the baseball season is just around the corner, and the Iowa Farm League player draft.

As the co-founder and commissioner of the league, one of my duties is to round up all the other team owners and herd them towards the New York Life building on the last Saturday of the month. Its on that day that we sit in a conference room for five hours and craft a dozen fantasy teams that consist of 23 professional baseball players from National League rosters. This is our 11th year of existence, with a gap of a couple years in there.

Baseball is just one sport that comes around in spring. Golf is another. I plan for this to be the year that my kids accompany me to the golf course and begin to learn the game. I'm looking forward to teaching them how to stand improperly, grip the club improperly, swing improperly, and then question why the ball doesn't land where it is supposed to. Ah, good times.

Ice and Snow

2007-02-26T08:11:00.000-06:00

To my friends the Millers down in Texas -- you left just in time.

Eastern Iowa was hard to find on the national weather map Saturday -- there was too much weather on top of it. The state was a radar blob of white and pink (white for snow and pink for ice) for about 36 hours. Depending on where you live, the mix was more snow than ice, or more ice than snow. Here in Cedar Rapids, it was ice. About an inch of ice fell on power lines and trees, snapping both. Early Sunday morning an estimated 200,000 utility customers in Eastern Iowa (that's probably about 1/6 of all homes) were without power.

That included the Hagerman house. Our power went out just is dinner was coming out of the oven Saturday night, about 6 p.m. We ate a romantic candlelight dinner (well, it was candlelight anyway) and played a game of Sorry! at the table. Then, off to bed early. We hit the sack about 9 p.m. with little else to do. Sunday morning brought more of the same -- no juice. But also, no snow. The predicted 8-12 inches of white stuff that was supposed to follow the ice never came. Instead, warm rain was falling, melting away what little snow was on the ground, and some of the ice, too. The cold temps and snow went north. Our power was restored around noon on Sunday. By then we were thankful that we were not pioneers on the plains in 1840.

I feel bad for those still without power, an estimated 20,000 in Cedar Rapids and many thousands more in rural Iowa. But I don't mind the storm itself. In a powerful way, its a reminder that we simply trust God to provide in all circumstances -- ice and all. As we worshipped on Sunday morning with the 50 that were able to make the drive to the church building, I relished being able to sing words like "It is well with my soul" and "Great is Thy faithfulness." Come hell or high water (or high ice), God is in control, and I belong to Him.

Squeezing the Turnip

2007-02-21T07:41:00.000-06:00

I confess I don't really have any idea what that phrase means. I've never eaten a turnip, and not sure I've even seen one. I assume that turnips are dry roots, and that "squeezing the turnip" means trying to get something (in this case, liquid) out of an item that has nothing left to give.

I use this phrase to describe the result of my months-long study of the issue of election/predestination/reformed theology. My intellect is the turnip, and there is nothing else to squeeze out at the moment.

I began with the premise that we (humans) are created with the ability to choose that Jesus Christ become our Savior, or reject this offer and suffer the consequences. Heading down one path, or the other path, is simply a matter of our own will and desire. God blesses us with intellect, and with that that intellect, we make decisions about Him.

I no longer am able to embrace that theology. Passages from the books of Ephesians, Romans, 1 Corinthians, and John (among others) describe man as dead and incapable of turning to God. Furthermore, that we have no ability to make morally positive decisions, because our spiritual nature is completely void of good. What's more, I question the very definition of grace, if ultimately our salvation is dependent on our own decisions and actions (commonly defined in the Bible as "works").

On the other hand, I am not yet ready to wholeheartedly embrace what is commonly called "Reformed Theology." In essence, that before God even created the heavens and the earth (Genesis 1), he already knew me and decided my eternal fate (and that of all the other billions of people born past, present and future). And, that my fate is accomplished wholly by God -- my salvation is accomplished by Him lock, stock, and barrel. I am incapable of saying "no" to God, because He will overwhelm me with His Spirit so that I can do nothing outside of saying "yes."

My problem here is two-fold. First, both the Old and New Testaments are filled with real examples of people choosing to follow God and not choosing. Most of Paul's NT letters to various churches describe in great detail how to "work out your salvation," "run the good race," "live in the Spirit," etc. The book of Acts is a litany of people being persuaded to choose Christ. We are warned repeatedly that succombing to evil and failing to turn away from sin is cause for eternal destruction. Reformists say that we choose only because God first chose us, and that the exhortations of Paul are not to those who are unsaved, but to those who are already (and eternally) saved. That all of those warnings are serious and true -- but that our ultimate, eternal fate has already been decided. I can see this in certain Scripture -- but can not yet reason it against other Scripture.

My second problem is this -- understanding the nature of God. If God is indeed glorified by both choosing people for salvation and choosing people for condemnation, and works everything out so that His plan for each soul is executed without flaw, then how does that glorify God? I'm not saying it doesn't, but that I don't know why. My human reasoning tells me that God would be more glorified if souls turned to Him out of freedom of will, rather than planned compulsion. But even as Paul says in Romans, who am I, the clay, to question God, the Potter?

So, there you have it. I could go on, and on and on ... but it would be like squeezing the turnip. I've studied this theology with more diligence than anything else in quite some time. God has moved me from one side of the pendalum, to the other side, and now I'm resting in the middle. It's not a comfortable place to be -- there is no truth in the middle -- but it's where I am nonetheless. In time, aided by prayer, study, and the Spirit, I expect that God will reveal more of Himself to me and clarify my understanding. Until then, the turnip is going to rest awhile.

Oh, two more things .... First, this is a pretty significant doctrine that earnest, Godly people disagree about. There is a trememdous demonstration of Christian unity when people from both sides of this doctrine can agree to disagree and still maintain love for God and each other. So, to my brothers out there on both sides ... I appreciate your patience, prayers, and commitment to Christ, however it is you came to know Him and understand His promise of salvation to those who genuinely believe.

Secondly, if you have never before (or even recently) considered the nature of God's grace, man's sinful nature, and salvation -- consider it. There is value in the struggle, and blessings in the Word. My dry turnip does not mean that my study has been unprofitable -- quite the opposite is true. Being a disciple means wrestling with truth from time to time, and growing from the battle. I know I have been sharpened -- you will be too.

And the Next President Is...

2007-02-15T10:52:00.000-06:00

My college roomies and I got together last weekend for games and conversation. The same day, I received a brochure from John Cox, a self-described "conservative Republican" from Illinois who is running for President. The fact that I live in the first-in-the-nation-caucus state of Iowa and have never heard of John Cox is probably a good barometer of his chances of winning.

But I digress. As we passed his brochure around, my friend Greg offered his view of the 2008 race -- McCain-Guiliani for the elephants and Clinton-Obama for the donkeys. I think that's a pretty safe guess.

Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney (R) has entered the race this past week. Ex-Iowa Gov Tom Vilsack (D) was one of the first to declare. Rep. Dennis Kucinich (D) is in, too. I'm sure there are others that are declared, and some that are "all but" officially in.

I've commented before that I used to enjoy politics, at least the political process. I'm not so much a fan anymore, but more of a skeptic. Dems and Pubs seem to treasure their posturing more than they do problem solving. Issues like Social Security and national security are huge, yet little joint work is seemingly being done to accomplish the needs of the People.

As for Greg's presidential prognostication ... not much to get excited about there. McCain has run and lost before. Probably not much different about him now than before. Tough on defense, weak on social issues (I'm not sure he even knows his own convictions). Guiliani is all about name recognition and Sept. 11 fame. Once Republicans start asking questions about his three marriages and voting records, he won't look so shiny. Then there's Clinton-Obama. The Clinton name has been restored to popularity, Obama is a media star with very little political experience. The chance of me voting for this pair is unmeasurable, because I don't agree with their politics. For some in this country, it might be a decision of how they feel about a woman president and a black, Muslim VP.

The Dems are the media darlings, the stars of the show. The two Republicans have their work cut out for them, and will receive no positive assistance from the current president. As for all the other names in the race (and not yet in the race) ... don't see much likelihood of gaining attention from the media and the populace. Unfortunately, people don't vote from their hearts anymore -- they vote by responding to the headlines.

Five Minutes at the Grammys

2007-02-12T08:26:00.000-06:00

Last night the 49th annual Grammy awards were on television. I watched about 10 45-second snippets.

The majority of groups nominated for awards were people I've only heard of, and even then, just a slight majority. Only a handful were people whose music I might actually be able to pick out of a lineup, and most of those were old crooners (Stevie Wonder and Tony Bennett were among the winners last night).

I realize how far off the mainstream music path my tastes have fallen. Its probably true that most of us most closely identify with the music of 7-10th grades. That's when we went to the city pool, when we first became consumers, when we listened to music in our spare time. For me, that was about 1984. The big albums of that era: Bruce Springsteen's "Born in the USA," Michael Jackson's "Thriller," and Huey Lewis' "Sports." Other big names were Lionel Ritchie, Cyndi Lauper, Billy Joel, Sting, Phil Collins, and Prince. Ironically, Ritchie sang at the Oscars, Prince was the Super Bowl halftime act and Joel the pre-game anthem singer. Sting led off the Grammy's with his Police band, and Springsteen won a Grammy for folk music. Huey Lewis was on a different stage -- the Pebble Beach ProAm.

While I still listen to the music of my youth on occasion (which also includes the music of my parents' youth, as it was often on the stereo in our home), my tastes now run toward music I can use today, namely, Christian hymns and worship songs. Call me old-fashioned, or just plain old -- either one would be accurate. I'm not hip to the Grammy's, that's for sure.

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A quick note for C.G. -- the reference call came Sunday night.

Super Bowl, Super Ads?

2007-02-07T08:53:00.000-06:00

After surviving the first seven seconds of the game, the Colts came through and dominated the Bears. The score was closer than it should have been. Prior to the game I mentioned to a fellow watcher that the Colts would win by 17. Didn't quite happen that way, but it could have.

Some watch "The Game" for the game, others for the halftime show. I watched a few minutes of Prince singing "Let's Go Grazy," then went for some munchy refills. Been there, done that, 21 years ago (yes, it's been that long).

And then, there's the advertisements. Since today is Wednesday, I figure that the most impacful ads would be the ones I still remember. That is the point of advertising, right? That people will remember your product long after the commercial has aired? For the $2.8 million paid for each 30 second time slot, these companies better hope I take memory of their ads to my grave.

So, which one's stand out?

I liked the one where the critters are using a live mouse to try and run their computer. It made me laugh. But I don't remember the product it was touting. I'm probably not going to go out and buy a live mouse, nor a computer mouse, so that ad didn't earn any money for the sponsor.
The rock, paper, scissors ad with the two guys fighting over the last beer was also funny. Since Budweiser was the primary (only?) beer advertisor during the game, I assume that was a Bud or Bud Light ad.
The series of ads from CareerBuilder.com were comical. The fact that I remember CareerBuilder.com is a nice bonus. Sadly, I'm not planning to visit their website.
GoDaddy has been trying with all their might to make a splash with Super Bowl advertising by showing some skin. Visit their website and you can read all about Bob Parson's fight with the FCC over racy commercials, and why they go that route in the first place. I don't like the ads, for obvious reasons. But at least this year's "Everyone wants to work in marketing" tagline was humorous.
The various ads from Doritos (the homemade variety), the car commercials (can't remember which cars) and the tribute to black coaches were fine fillers, but not particularly impactful. I certainly won't be going out and buying a new Toyota Tundra as a result of watching a computer generated scene of peril.

In the end, I suppose TV advertising is a necessary evil for certain companies. As consumers we should remember that TV exists primarily as an advertising medium, not for the shows. Your picture would be a snowy blur if not for the willingness of corporate America to display its wares in 30 second time slots.

And by the way, the Colts will repeat in Super Bowl XXXXII.

Superheros, Shiloh, and Chivalry

2007-02-02T11:51:00.000-06:00

We rarely see a new movie in the theatre, with prices so high and the likelihood of disappointment even higher -- I am cheap and hard to please. But we do rent a fair number of films because they don't cost much and I can turn them off if I don't like them. It also gives us a chance to preview what the kids might view later.

When I was in college at the University of Northern Iowa, I wrote movie reviews for the Northern Iowan for one semester. Free tickets each week to a movie of my choice. My rating system was based on black JuJu Fruits. JuJu fruits are sort of like Dots -- a soft, chewy, gumdrop candy. The black ones tasted bad. So, I rated movies based on their weakness. Bad movie = lots of black JuJu fruits.

I recently watched three movies on DVD. Here's how I would rate them ...

"Sky High" is about a high school freshman who is born of two superhero parents, yet himself does not have superhero powers. Sky High is his new high school, where all the kids have superhero parents. This goofy movie is essentialy about our young man coming into his own and deciding who and what he is all about -- sort of a common teen angst movie wrapped into a cartoonish plot involving special powers. Our TV Guardian was used sparingly (mostly clean language) and outside of some mild violence and teen flirting, the movie was sparkling. It was almost cute, but just dumb enough to leave you wishing it were just a little bit more "something." I give it four black JuJu fruits -- about an average movie with extra credit for being family friendly.

"Facing the Giants" is the story of Shiloh Christian Academy's mediocre football team and its unusual season of revival. This movie is best known for having been created by a Baptist church down in Georgia. Members of the church directed, produced, scored, and acted the entire thing on a shoestring budget. It's a movie about Jesus disguised as a a sports story. My wife and I disagreed about the quality of the acting. She thought it was good. I thought it was on the level of watching a well-done home video or training film. We did agree that it was a sweet story with a good message. And kudos to the Sherwood Baptist Church for tackling such an ambitious project. Four black JuJu fruits.

Chivalry is on display in the remake of "Pride and Predudice" released last year. I've seen it three times and enjoyed it immensely with each viewing. It has cracked my top 10 of all-time faves, as I watch this common 18th century English family and the stories of its daughters. Though it is an adult film, there is no objectionable content and the kids watched it with us without the TV Guardian. I have no complaints, and therefore no black JuJu fruits to award.

What's in Your Savings Account?

2007-02-01T09:29:00.000-06:00

If you are the average America, the answer is zippo.

The government released statistics today that the average American's savings rate in 2006 was -1 percent. That's right, a negative number. How can that be, you might ask? Well apparently, loans against 401k plans, withdrawles from savings, home equity loans and the like outpaced contributions into such accounts.

Think about that. For every person that put $10,000 into savings last year, someone else took out $10,100. If $18 billion was going into mutual funds every month (primarily in 401k plans), $18,180,000,000 was coming out.

The negative rate in 2006 followed a negative rate in 2005. It is the only two-year period in recorded history that such a thing occurred, the other being 1933-34. Remember what was going on then? Oh yeah, the Great Depression -- the worst economic period in modern US history. 25 percent unemployment or more, farms going belly-up out West -- general disaster.

What about 2006? Unemployment is low, the stock market has been good, the economy is expanding. What is our excuse? You and I both know what it is -- we don't save because we don't want to. As a society, we have devalued savings and elevated consumerism. Sunday's Super Bowl is a prime example. Tickets are going for several thousand dollars a pop. The networks pay hundreds of millions to broadcast the game, and then charge millions per minute for advertising. Advertisers pony up because they believe that their money will be recouped the next time you go shopping for a $40,000 car, a disposable razor with 28 blades, or the best tasting beer on the planet.

With nearly 80 million baby boomers headed for retirement, and Gen X'ers saving squat, the numbers are gloomy. Most people are not more than a few months away from bankruptcy, or borrowing from a 401k.

My personal savings rate for 2006 was 4 percent. If you add in the gains from investments, that number goes up to 18 percent. But, you can subtract 7 percent that was withdrawn from savings to pay for life. So, we were up. That means that one of you out there was down ... way down. Maybe next year we will reverse positions. I'm not bragging ... I need to be saving more too.

Sounds like a good resolution for that last 11 months of 2007.

The Day the Horse Died

2007-01-30T08:31:00.000-06:00

Two days ago the Kentucky Derby winning horse Barbaro was put to sleep. Barbaro was injured almost a year ago during the running of the Preakness, the second of the famed "Triple Crown" horse races. Numerous surgeries and intensive care treatment could not induce proper healing, so the animal was put down.

Over the course of the last eight months, Barbaro has apparently received millions of letters, phone calls, website well-wishes, flowers, and food wreaths. There have been candlelight vigils, and no doubt more than one person who has prayed for the horse's healing.

Am I missing something here? Barbaro is not Barbara -- this is a horse, not a person. He is an animal specifically raised and trained to entertain us by running races, and then to breed more entertainment animals. Is it possible that I'm just a fool with no soft spot in my heart for a horse with a broken leg?

It's possible.

Alternatively, is it possible that it says something about our society when millions of people write letters of comfort to a horse? When people send flowers to an animal, and read press releases on the hour about surgery results?

It tells me that a lot of people must not have much substance in their lives. It tells me that in this "Christian nation," we are looking to every source imaginable for a little inspiration, a wisp of joy. Our faith and our families apparently are not captivating enough ... we need a tragic horse story to stir our hopes. Hmmmmm ....

Environmental Wacko Pick

2007-01-24T08:25:00.000-06:00

Listened to the State of the Uion address last night ... not much to comment on. I feel like I've heard it all before. The most interesting part of the speech to me is watching which side of the aisle applauds which points. My wife watched with me last night and said "That must be where the Democrats are sitting."

Touche'.

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For about three years I listened to Rush Limbaugh every day (back in the mid-90s). I don't listen at all now, except for the occasional surfing the dial while riding in the car. But one thing I always thought was funny was his environmental wacko pro football picks. He would go through the games to be played the upcoming weekend and predict the outcome based on the natural order of things -- tongue-in-cheeck of course.

Dolphins vs. Packers -- Wait till those Packers get ahold of a Dolphin!

Patriots vs. Redskins -- We already know what happened when Patriots encountered Redskins!

Falcons vs. Cardinals -- The meek Cardinals will get eaten alive!

The upcoming Super Bowl pits the Indianapolis Colts vs. the Chicago Bears. Hmmmm ... Colts vs. Bears. These two animals would not be natural enemies of one another, as Colts can easily outrun Bears. Yet, Bears express a certain tenacity and carnivorous spirit that Colts do not. Therefore, the Bears will catch the Colts and tear them apart, gorging on their hindshanks like a Sunday buffet!

(In truth, I think the Colts are the better team and Peyton Manning is going to finally get his first Super Bowl ring.)

Is Your Church a Cult?

2007-01-18T07:51:00.000-06:00

I have been reading a blog recently where individuals are recounting their church experience and how they feel the church resembles a cult. Well, not resembles, but in fact, IS a cult.

In order to make a comparison, it's helpful to have a working definition of what a cult is. Wikipedia defines a cult as "a cohesive group of people (of varying size) devoted to beliefs or practices that the surrounding culture or society considers to be far outside the mainstream. The literal and traditional meanings of the word cult is derived from the Latin cultus, meaning 'care' or 'adoration,' as 'a system of religious belief or ritual; or: the body of adherents to same.'"

Let's break it down .... Is a church a cohesive group of people? I hope so. Jesus and the Apostles had a lot to say about love and unity among his people. I think most churches would like to be cohesive.

Is the church committed to a set of beliefs and practices? Again, I hope so. Chief among those beliefs is that God is the creator of all, that Jesus is His Son, that the Bible is God's Word recorded for our reading and interpretation, and that salvation is found only through the grace of God made available by faith in the death and resurrection of Jesus. The Christian practices of worship, prayer, baptism, fellowship, evangelism, financial giving, etc. generally demonstrate our belief and love for God.

Does the surrounding culture or society consider the church to be far outside the mainstream? That's a good question. Certainly Jesus recognized that His followers were going to be far outside the mainstream in some ways. Jesus taught that many souls would cry out to Him on judgement day, but only a very few would He acknowledge as belonging to Him. The Apostle Paul says that Christ-followers are not citizens of this earth, but, that we are aliens. The New Testament repeatedly warns Christians not to get too comfy on earth, nor to judge success using the same methods as the world judges.

We Christians walk a fine line of trying to be "normal" as the world defines it, but "aliens" as we are described by Christ. Church leaders walk a fine line of encouraging their congregations to demonstrate love to Christ through good works, while not trying to by too "pushy" and ask more than the human mind says is "reasonable."

So, is your church a cult? Frankly, it better be. I know, I know ... the "C" word has taken on a negative connotation in the last 30 years. We invision death by KoolAid, fiery compounds in Waco, flowers being handed out at the airport, bloody animal sacrifices.

But Christians ARE called to be unique and different. If churches are made up of devoted Christians, it would stand to reason that the church body should also be unique and different from society.

Just look at the church in Acts chapters 2-5. The Christians were meeting every day (not just once on Sunday). They were selling their posessions and giving to those who had need. Many who had come to Jerusalem from far away likely stayed much longer than planned. Acts 2:42 says that these Christians were dedicated to learning about Jesus through the Apostles teaching, to prayer, to fellowship, and to the breaking of bread (commonly, the Lord's Supper). What a bunch of wackos.

So, if your church leaders encourage you to attend a few church events each week, have Christian friends in your home for fellowship, give just 10 percent of your wealth to God (as opposed to all of it), pray regularly, read your Bible, seek Godly counsel about important decisions, and tell others about Jesus, are they cult leaders? Are you a brainwashed, manipulated, deceived individual?

Some would certainly have you think so. What do you think?

The Spiritual and Sinful Natures

2007-01-15T07:49:00.000-06:00

Due, in part, to my recent study in Romans and my recent reading of the Ted Dekker book Three, I find myself thinking about the nature of man. Specifically, the dichotomy between man's spiritual nature and man's sinful nature.

I define man's spiritual nature as the part of man that seeks to imitate the holiness of God. I (think) I believe that all men are born with a spiritual nature. At some point in time that nature is given a rebirth, as God and man become joined through Christ in salvation.

The human nature is certainly something we're born with. It is that part of us that acts out of selfishness and pride. It seeks to put us at the center of all that happens around us. It allows us to rationalize our actions and push God to the backburner.

The spiritual nature and the sinful nature are always at war. Each wants to be fed. Each needs to be fed in order to grow and dominate the other. Why are the so-called spiritual disciplines and spiritual activity so important -- prayer, fasting, worship. meditation, fellowship with believers, the Lord's Supper, baptism, reading of scripture, etc.? Because it is food for our spiritual nature. Think of each as a power pill -- a dose of God that refreshes the spiritual nature.

The sinful nature hardly needs any direct "help" from us -- it is fed at will by the world. The more wordly our environment, the more we eat. Sometimes, simply being in the presence of "sinful nature food" is enough to get us eating, whether we know it or not. A few examples .... Ever been to a party and eaten three dozen shrimp tails, when six would do? I have. Somewhere between six and 36 we cross the line to gluttony. At the same party, a person may be handed a beer or glass of wine. Seven later, the line from sobriety to drunkenness has been crossed. The sinful nature has been fed. Or how about last year's raise? What kind of food was purchased with the extra money -- spiritual food or sinful food? If I made an extra five grand, would I give a substantial amount away, or would I instead by a few more toys that I have been "sacrificing" until I could "afford" them?

The hard part about the spiritual and sinful natures is this -- seems we have to be pretty intentional about feeding the spiritual nature, while the sinful nature can saddle up to the buffet all day long. I suppose that's one reason why Jesus said that the ultimate highway of the spiritual nature (salvation) is just a two-laner, while the road to destruction is paved a mile wide.

What will you and I choose today for food? May our eating be profitable.

An Open Letter to Sinclair and Mediacom

2007-01-11T07:29:00.000-06:00

Gentlemen (and ladies),

It is Thursday, January 11, and I have now been without programming on our local CBS affiliate for six days.

I have to be honest -- I thought I would miss you more. When your feud over fees became public in November, I was upset at the notion of my cable company not being able to broadcast KGAN-TV. Although, I have to admit that I only watch two programs on the affiliate with any frequency -- "Survivor" and University of Iowa sports. Currently, "Survivor" is between seasons. I did miss my first basketball game ... well, I didn't really. I turned on the radio, and listened to an entertaining broadcast complete with pregame and postgame comments. It was just as good as watching it.

Back in November I did an Internet search to determine if there were other cable television options in my Marion, Iowa neighborhood. There are not -- Mediacom is a monopoly where I live. I checked into satellite TV -- Sinclair's station begged me to give DirectTV my business. But making the change would have raised my television viewing bill from about $14 a month to $25, a cost that I am not willing to pay. And so, until y'all come back to the sandbox with your expensive attorneys and big egos, I'll simply have to do without CBS and KGAN-TV.

Sinclair -- I know that you don't really care about what's going on in Eastern Iowa -- your CEO's public comments have made that pretty clear. We're just a bunch of country bumpkins in rural America that represent a sliver of your total viewership. The local station that you've owned for the last several years has been in the ratings cellar from the very first day. I can only assume that this negatively affects your advertising revenue and your corporate bottom line. But, apparently the impact is not that great, since your revenue this week must be going from some to none. What company would spend good money to advertise with you now, when your product isn't readily available to most of the public?

And Mediacom -- I think if I had to choose a side to support, it would be yours. But I have to be honest, I'm no fan of cable television. You charge me $14 a month for an antennae that pulls in local stations, a couple of national "superstations," and several shopping channels. Just two years ago our bill for the same package was $10. Should we care to receive additional programming from you, our cost jumps to $30 or more. It bothers me that you are the only option in town. And what I really want from cable providers is the option to choose my channels a la carte. For $15 a month, give me just six or seven stations of my choosing, instead of 24 channels of your choosing.

Well folks, while you are doing your thing, I'm doing mine. I'm playing games with the kids at night, reading, listening to music and the radio. I might miss the Super Bowl, or an Iowa basketball game, or a "Survivor" episode. But, it won't kill me. And if I get really desperate, I can always find a friend, or a local bar and grill, and borrow their satellite TV for a couple of hours.

You just keep those attorneys on retention and running your full page ads in the local newspaper that blame each other for your problems. And then, when you finally work out your deal, be sure to raise my bill (Mediacom) and advertising rates (Sinclair) to make up the difference.

No longer watching,
Brian

Resolutions

2007-01-10T08:10:00.000-06:00

Last year I made a number of New Year's Resolutions. Here's what they were, and how I did ...

A nine percent weight reduction. I have 11 percent left to achieve. Yep, I actually gained a couple of pounds in 2006.
I want to work smarter. If my daytime is not spent working for God, either through my business or through my church, then it is not time well spent. My sales and total income in 2006 increased slightly over 2005. My commitments at church increased, as did the time I've devoted to ministry.
I want to play more strategically. If my evenings and weekends are not spent building up my family, then it isn't time well spent. I have been inconsistent with our family reading times, but probably spent more time doing things with each of my kids individually.
I want to remember that my cup is always half full, not half empty. Sometimes my cup even runs over. It's just an attitude thing ... believing what I fully believe is already true. Well, I think this is an area I have grown in and want to continue to grow in. As I wrote last year, its all about attitude and not believing the lies and self doubt that we sometimes allow ourselves to dwell on.
I want to live for today, for tomorrow, and for eternity simultaneously. Can this be done? Is it possible to have a healthy balance in life between enjoying the day you're living, while planning for tomorrow, while always keeping an eternal perspective? I'm going to give it my best shot. I don't know if I gave it "my best shot," but like the last goal, it is an area of past and future growth.

My resolutions for 2007 remain largely unchanged. Bottom line -- I want to know Christ and the power of His rising, to live in this power, and to be disciplined enough to make the most of what I have been blessed with.

The Things of Life and Death

2007-01-09T12:07:00.000-06:00

I have been out of pocket for several days attending to my grandmother in Lexington, Kentucky.

Last Tuesday my 87 year-old grandma suffered a heart attack and stroke. The heart attack was severe, the stroke minor. The night following her hospital admittance, she had a second heart attack. My mother flew to Lexington. On Thursday, the situation looked grave and my dad and I drove Friday morning to be with her, while my brother drove in from Virginia. During our Friday-Sunday stay, her external condition improved. She has been able to sit up for short periods of time, and reduce the medications taken by IV. Her catheter is gone. But internally, her condition remains somewhat critical. She is 87, and her body is accumulating problems that are not easily solved.

My trip to Lexington served two purposes. The first was to do the right thing by my family. It has been eight years since my last visit to bluegrass country. It has been five or six years since my last visit with grandma. When I was a child, our summer family vacations always began with a drive to Lexington. Sometimes it was a stopping point before going on. Many times it was the sole destination. As an adult, my visits have been infrequent.

The second purpose was to say goodbye. My grandma's condition is such that her death appeared imminent. Now that she has survived the weekend, her death is uncertain, to the extent that it's time can't be predicted. But it seems to truly be a matter of time. On Friday it was hours. Now, it could be days, weeks, months, or years. What is more certain is that it is unlikely I will see my grandma alive again.

Her emotional and physical condition did not allow us to share much joy or laughter. But, my extended family is rich with January birthdays, and so we celebrated with pizza and cake in her room. It was the first of my 37 birthdays celebrated outside of Iowa (though not the first in a hospital room).

I regret that I did not have an opportunity for one-on-one with grandma. Her room was full of other relatives, nurses, and doctors. If I had been able to talk with her quietly, I would like to have read her one of my favorite Psalms.

Come, let us sing for joy to the Lord, let us shout aloud to the Rock of our salvation. Let us come before Him with thanksgiving and extol Him with music and song. For the Lord is a great God, the greatest King above all gods. In His hands are the depths of the earth. The mountain peaks belong to Him, the sea is also His, for He made it, and His hands formed the dry land. Come, let us kneel before the Lord, our God and Maker. For He is our God, and we are the those that dwell in His pasture. We are the sheep of His hands.

My grandmother is Jewish. By my way of thinking, she will die and be apart from God for all of eternity, because she has not accepted the grace of Jesus as her own. I would like to have shared the part of Scripture (the Psamls) with her that is meaningful to both of us. I would like to have told her that the story did not end with God the creator and God the shepherd of the ancient nation of Israel, but continued through Jesus as God became the promised Savior, Redeemer, and Friend to all who accept Him.

But instead, I loved her the best that I could. I sat by her bed, held her hand, told her "I love you." I did the right thing, and I'm glad that I did. But, as I reflected driving home from the hospital Sunday night, the "right thing" doesn't seem like enough. I wish there were more I could do. I wish there were more that God would do for this part of my family.

My grandmother will be remembered by those around her as a strong woman who loved her family, enjoyed art, music, and good food. I will remember her as the tireless caretaker of my late grandfather, and as one who always expressed her love with colorful kisses and words of affection. When she passes, I know that a part of my life will pass with her, and I will be profoundly sad that our eternal lives, as I understand such things, will not be spent together.

Happy New Year

2007-01-02T13:46:00.000-06:00

I've returned from the Faithwalkers conference at Tan Tara resort and am pretending to be well-rested. Lots to catch up on, especially getting back into the work groove after skipping 10 days.

I'm typing from my new computer, an eBay purchase for $600. New to me, but not brand new. Its a Dell Inspiron 9100 -- a big lunker of a laptop that was a real suped-up machine two years ago when new. It's still nice, and fit my budget. I've spent most of today getting work info transferred over and all the other stuff going (virus protection, browsers, and e-mail).

I'll post more soon. Welcome to 2007!!!

Something a Little Lighter

2006-12-21T09:03:00.000-06:00

This theology stuff, while important to me, isn't very amusing. So here's an update on a few other happenings at our house.

We scream for eBay. Hopefully it will be screams of joy. I bought a used laptop computer yesterday for $600 from an architectural firm in Massachusetts. It will replace the one I'm using right now as a work computer, which is five years old. More on the new computer after the first of the year.
Speaking of New Year's, I will miss the agony of watching Iowa play football Dec. 30 against Texas. Iowa was chosen to play because they could sell tickets, as could Texas. Texas was 9-3, with two losses late in the season after their starting QB got hurt. Iowa limped out the season at 6-6, and never beat anyone with a winning record. My prediction is Texas 31, Iowa 13.
This is likely my last day in the office for the year. Tomorrow I have a meeting all morning, and will probably take the afternoon off. Then Christmas, then vacation to Lake of the Ozarks.
Last weekend we received a Christmas visit from Michelle's mom, this weekend its Michelle's dad, then my parents, then the extended Hagerman clan (Saturday, Sunday, Monday). My brother and his family out in Virginia aren't able to come back this year, so Merry Christmas to you Mark (if you're reading).
Michelle begged me to open my birthday present last night, 16 days early. So I did, and we watched "That Thing You Do." It's a top 5 movie for me (see the early archives for my entire top five list). With the TV Guardian in place, we had the kids watch with us. Since they know all the music (from the soundtrack CD) I think they enjoyed seeing the story that goes with it.
Finally, I picked up the Jorge Cruise "Three-Hour Diet" book that I bought last year. After the first of the year, its time to get serious about being more nutritious and losing a few pounds. Famous last words ...

Bogged Down in Romans -- Part II

2006-12-21T08:10:00.000-06:00

Thank you for the private feedback I received from several readers following my "Part I" post.

One responder suggested that there is a third position on election -- universalism. It is the concept that because God loves us so much, He will not punish anyone to eternal damnation. Hell is figurative, not literal. I don't want to muddy the water with this theory, except to be reminded that Jesus warns that "not everyone will enter the kingdom of heaven."
Another responder questioned the role of faith, particularly the faith displayed in the "Hebrews Hall of Fame" (ch. 11). Didn't these men choose their path of following God, rather than being elected to do so?
Also, is the application of the Jacob/Esau story really implying anything more than God had a plan for the Jews?

I left off around Romans 9:18. In Romans 9:19, Paul again acknowledges that his audience may question his line of teaching -- "Then why does God still blame us? For who resists his will?" In other words, how can we be held accountable for our actions, if God has already determined our course in life? That's the same question I would have asked (and ask now). Paul's response -- "But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'" Does not the potter have the right to make out of the same lump of clay some pottery for noble purposes and some for common use?" Hmmm .... So, God makes each of us for different purposes, Paul says. But "ignoble use" doesn't have any relevence to salvation, does it?

Let's understand the progression up until this point. Paul is presenting to the Romans a gospel message throughout Romans. He is encouraging both Jews and Gentiles to understand that the wages of sin is death (Romans 3:23). He say that, at just the right time, Jesus died for the ungodly (Romans 5:6), and that this death was enough to bring justification to all people (Romans 5:18). He makes a case that this gift is for all races, not just the Jews (Romans 4:16). Paul paints a beautiful picture of how we pass from death to life (Romans 6:3-7) as we are baptized into Christ. After discussing the relationship between sin and grace, and then what it means to become a new creation in Christ, Paul comes to chapter nine. He begins, as we saw last time, by lamenting that his Jewish race will not all come to salvation, even though they had all the opportunities to follow God. Then Paul beings to explain why this can be -- how a nation so thoroughly bedazzled by God can not connect with Him. Paul concludes that it is because it was not God's intention that all should come to Him, but only some. And those that do? It's because He created some for the purpose of salvation, and others for "ignoble use."

Now, the crux of election theology.

Romans 9:22-24 -- "What if God, choosing to show his wrath and make his power known, bore with great patience the objects of his wrath -- prepared for destruction? What if he did this to make the riches of his glory known to the objects of his mercy, whom he prepared in advance for glory even us, whom he also called, not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles?

Paul seems to say that there are two kinds of people. One is those who he prepared for destruction. The other is those who are the objects of His mercy. God uses the destruction of one to demonstrate His love for the other. And then, just so we don't think that this is applicable to Jews only, Paul tacks on, "not only from the Jews but also from the Gentiles."

So, if that's it, what is the role of faith?

Paul discusses faith throughout Romans, and also in his other NT writings. Paul indicates many times that we are saved through faith, we walk in faith, our faith is of greater value then gold, etc. He essentially says time and time again that we are saved by faith in Jesus. If that's the case, where does faith come from? And how does the role of faith jive with this Romans 9 discussion? Next time ...

Comments???

Bogged Down in Romans -- Part I

2006-12-18T10:48:00.000-06:00

My posts have been slowed because I'm bogged down in Romans, considering what the Apostle Paul has to say about the relationship between man choosing God and God choosing man, as it relates to salvation.

Romans seems to be the key text for those who view salvation as a result of God's election. Consider the following from chapter 9:

Paul begins the chapter discussing the plight of his own race, the Jews. He reminds readers that it is the Jews who received every advantage from God -- adoption as sons, the law and covenants, the temple worship, the patriarchs, and the lineage of Christ. But, (vs. 6) "Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel." What has Paul said? That not all of Israel is saved, but just some? What is the basis for this?
Paul goes on to say that it is the portion of Israel that are descendents of Isaac only that are "children of the promise." (vs 7-8) So that, it is "not the natural children who are God's," but only children of the promise are God's children.
Then Paul discusses Isaac's children, Jacob and Esau, and the continuance of the promise. Paul points out that (vs. 11) "Before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad -- in order that God's purpose in election might stand, not by works but by him who calls -- she was told, "The older will serve the younger. Just as it is written: "Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated." What does Paul say here? Well, that God had a plan -- that before the children of Isaac wore born (before they had demonstrated even one nation of holiness or sin), God would fulfill his promise of salvation to the line of Jacob (the youngest) and not of Esau (the oldest). Paul then reminds us that God loved Jacob but hated Esau (vs. 13). That doesn't seem fair of God, that he would love one and hate the other, just because He wishes to, does it?
Paul anticipates that his readers (and us today) would question God's fairness, because he then writes (vs. 14) "What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! For he says to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion."
For those who preach election, that is where the argument really starts to gel. Note what has happened here. Paul has said that not all of Israel will be saved, but only some. The predictor of those who would be saved is not human behavior, but God's plan of salvation -- even to the extent that a line of Israel was chosen through Jacob before Jacob was even born. Furthermore, Paul knows that his audience will cry foul and say that God's behavior doesn't seem fair. Paul answers this by simply quoting God's own words to Moses -- "I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion." Then Paul summarizes this by saying (vs. 16) "It does not, therefore, depend on man's desire or effort, but on God's mercy." "It" is salvation.
Then Paul uses one more example, that of Pharoah (the Egyptian ruler that experienced God's plagues before the Jews left Egypt). Paul says, essentially, that Pharoah was born for a single purpose (vs. 17) -- "that I (God) might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth." Paul then summarizes this verse by saying "God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden."

I'll stop here for now. Any feedback on these verses?

Free Will and Choice

2006-12-11T12:36:00.000-06:00

Where do the ideas of free will and choice come from? Theologically, is there a reason for us to believe that we are free to be you and me?

It would seem so, at least in some ways.

It starts back in the garden of Eden. Eve is walking around naked (Adam can't be too far behind) and gets talked into eating a special apple, choosing to ignore God's warning about such eating and instead following the bad advice of the serpant. In the Biblical account of this first temptation and consequent sin, it appears that Eve and her husband could choose to obey God, or not. They chose the latter, with severe consequences (Eve started wearing clothes, among other things).
In Deuteronomy chapter 30, Moses is giving Israel a final pep talk before they are to occupy the land of Canaan. Some of Moses final words to the people of God are, "This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob."
Moses' protege Joshua encourages more of the same in the 24th chapter of Joshua -- "Now fear the LORD and serve him with all faithfulness. Throw away the gods your forefathers worshiped beyond the River and in Egypt, and serve the LORD. But if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD."
Solomon, the wisest man who ever lived, gives this advice to his son -- "Since they [sinners] hated knowledge and did not choose to fear the LORD, since they would not accept my advice and spurned my rebuke, they will eat the fruit of their ways and be filled with the fruit of their schemes. For the waywardness of the simple will kill them, and the complacency of fools will destroy them; but whoever listens to me will live in safety and be at ease, without fear of harm."

Interestingly, each of these examples is from the Old Testament. If you perform a word search for "choose," most of the choosing is done by God, not be man. The phrase "free will," of course, does not appear in the Bible. But from these verses, it would seem that man is sometimes presented with the decision to choose God or not. An affirmative choice leads to life, the alternative to destruction.

These choices above are specific to moral decisions. Obviously, we make many choices everyday that are not specifically a choice for God or against Him. What we wear, what we eat, our route to work, and a hundred other matters of personal taste and expression. Does God care about these things?

In my next post I want to highlight a few of the things we don't seem to be able to choose.

Comments???

Cause and Effect

2006-12-06T08:08:00.000-06:00

As I think about this topic of election/free will, I'm also thinking about the other end of the equation -- eternal security. If the discussion over "How does our salvation initiate" represents the beginning of a strand of theology, then the end might be "How does our salvation cease" (if, in fact, it can). Both the answer to the beginning point and the end point say a lot about who God is, who we are, and the relationship between us and Him.

After asking the question, "Why am I here" in the previous post, I've been pondering about what it means to be created in God's image. In Genesis, we read that God did indeed create us in His own image. What does that mean?

Are we created in God's physical image? If that is the case, what aspect of it? Remember, God's image is represented in three parts -- the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Which one doe we physically resemble?

Are we created in God's spiritual image? If so, how does that manifest itself? Is it our soul that represents His image, or something else?

Are we created in God's intellectual image? Is the logic, intellect, and reasoning skills of humans what tie us to the image of God? Is this the primary criteria that most separates man from animals, and hence, why man is the crowning glory of God's creation?

Are we created in God's emotional image? Is our ability to laugh, cry, experience guilt and remorse, a reflection of God Himself? We find in Genesis that God was both "pleased" with His creation, and a few years later, "grieved."

I have long held the opinion that to be "created in God's image" means that we represent the only part of His creation that is drawn back to God. I think of God as having created the whole kit and kaboodle and releasing it into the continuum of time to do its thing. What makes man unique is that after having been created, God maintained a relationship with man. So, in short, man reflects the image of God through this relationship.This is due to man reflecting some aspect of God's divinity (spiritual characteristics) and God's humanity (emotional and intellectual characteristics).

At least, that's my theory. But then Adam and Eve had to crunch into that apple and complicate things with sin. Frankly, I'm not yet sure what sin does to my theory. Still working on that ... Thoughts?

Why am I Here?

2006-12-01T08:52:00.000-06:00

That's probably the most fundamental question a person could ask, isn't it? Indeed, why am I here? A few years ago, Rick Warren sold a boatload of books to Christians and non-Christian alike by trying to answer a closely related question, "What is my purpose?"

If you do not believe in a creator, the answer to "Why am I here?" can be nothing more than, "I don't know, it was really an accident. Some cosmic thing just happened a billion-trillion years ago, and over all of history, matter has been evolving into what it is today. I just happen to be the accidental product of science and time."

But if you believe in the Creator, the One who claims in Genesis chapter 1 to have made it all, then the question becomes more complex. Why did God create anything at all, let alone mankind?

I ask the question in light of the Arminian/Reformed theology struggle.

One thing we do know from Genesis 1:31, is that what God did create, He approved of.

"God saw all that he had made, and it was very good."

The phrase "very good" comes from the Hebrew "me'od towb." "Me'od" is a superlative word that could be translated as "exceedingly," or “especially." "Towb" is translated as "pleasant," "pleasurable," "precious," among other words.

So God created everything, last of which was mankind, and said that it was "exceedingly pleasant," or something to that effect. That doesn't answer the question of, "Why am I here?", but it does summarize what God thought of what he created.

I'm not sure the Bible comes right out and tells us why we're here -- God doesn't seem to plainly say, "I made you because ..." So, I admit my answer may just be speculation, but here it is: do we exist simply to please God? If He describes His creation as "pleasurable," it would be an explanation for why He created.

Many examples in the Bible seem to support the conclusion that pleasing God is certainly part of our DNA. Here are a few:

In Exodus 33 Moses is asking God for validation and evidence that God is pleased with him. "If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so I may know you and continue to find favor with you," says Moses. In response, God says to Moses, "I am pleased with you and I know you by name."
In Deuteronomy 28, Moses is reminding Israel the importance of obeying God's commands. After recalling the punishment God sent to Egypt, Moses says, "Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess." (The "land" referring to the promised land of Canaan.) This is interesting to me, as it suggests that God could take pleasure in both blessing His people, and destroying His people.
In 1 Kings 3, God tells Solomon in a dream, "Ask for whatever you want me to give you." The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this. So God said to him, "Since you have asked for this … I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be.”
In Psalms 40 and 41, David asks that God be pleased with him, and then, “I know that you are pleased with me, for my enemy does not triumph over me.”
Upon being baptized by John, God declares to Jesus and the witnesses, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased.”
Later in Matthew’s gospel, God again speaks in the presence of witnesses and says “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!"
In 1 Corinthians, Paul references Israel’s 40 years of wandering because they disobeyed God’s order to enter Canaan. Paul says, “Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did.”
In Hebrews’ “Bible Hall of Fame,” the writer says “By faith Enoch was taken from this life, so that he did not experience death; he could not be found, because God had taken him away. For before he was taken, he was commended as one who pleased God.”

If my sole purpose for existence is to please God, then the next question to answer might be, “What pleases God?” That’s another topic for another day. But I think as I ponder salvation and the respective roles that God and I play (or don’t play) in that, it’s important to consider that what pleases God is not necessarily what pleases me. In other words, what God defines as pleasing, or fair, or righteous, or holy, may be different from my sense of those things. Let’s discuss …

Reformed Arminianism

2006-11-28T12:26:00.000-06:00

I hate it when I get stuck in my thinking and I don't know how to choose the best of solutions. That's how it has been for the past 12 months as I've considered the Christian doctrine of election.

Growing up in the churches of Christ, I was taught that in order for a person to receive salvation, they must strike up a relationship with God. Salvation was summarized in this six step model:

Hear the Word of God
Believe in Jesus
Confess your sins
Repent (turn away from) your sinful life
Be Baptized (completely immersed in water) for the forgiveness of sins and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit
Continue to live for Christ (measured almost exclusively by good works)

Who takes these steps? The sinner, of course. It is up to the sinner to turn to God, to beg for mercy, and to show his sincerity/commitment by being baptized. Then, the sinner turned saint must faithfully continue to hold up his end of the relationship to maintain the promise of salvation.

I didn't know it at the time, but this philosophy of salvation bears the label Arminianism (after the 17th century theologian Jacobus Arminius). Man is sinful because of Adam's bite of the apple, but not so totally separated from God that he can't choose to turn to God (and turn from sin). Are we saved by grace? Yes. But, we can choose to turn down God's gift of grace, and thereby control our eternal destiny.

Because churches of Christ traditionally have separated themselves from the whole of Christian thought, I was never exposed to the other, widely taught possibility concerning salvation -- that God controls the whole process.

This is the concept of election -- that God elected before the beginning of time who would ultimately receive salvation and who would not. When we "come to Christ," it would be more accurately stated that Christ has already come to us, and through the Holy Spirit, both initiated and completed the salvation process. This is necessary, because when Adam sinned, all of mankind became so corrupt that we are completely incapable of choosing God. So, by necessary inference, if we can't choose God, then He must choose us.

Election was widely taught by St. Augustine, and later by John Calvin and others during the Protestant Reformation. Some would say that election is clearly taught by the Apostles John and Paul in their New Testament writings.

There really is no such thing as the title to this blog -- "Reformed Arminianism," but it's what I am right now. A fencesitter. A student. A confused modern-day theologian.

I may post in coming weeks some further thoughts on the issue as I read through a couple of books on the subject. Your thoughts, as always, are welcomed.

Reflections from an Old Man

2006-11-27T11:44:00.000-06:00

The title might lead you to believe this entry is being written by a guest.

Nope. I am that old man.

I discovered this fact during the last several days of Thanksgiving celebrations in Des Moines with Michelle's extended family. Here are the top six symptoms used to diagnose myself as an old man.

Bowling leaves you breathless and sore. Bowling is not an aerobic activity, at least it's not suppose to be. But bowling Friday night left me with a sore left knee (from planting my left foot before bending over and letting loose of the ball) and tired.
Your pants are tight BEFORE you eat the big Thanksgiving meal. I was already looking for a new belthole 30 minutes before pumpkin pie began gliding down the back of my tongue. I was well-behaved with my eating all weekend, yet still felt continuously stuffed into my clothes.
Hanging out with the parents is easier than hanging out with the cousins. Michelle's uncles and aunts are in their 50's. Her cousins range from early 20's to late 30'. The younger cousins are fun and full of energy. We related well to the uncles and aunts.
The van turns into a pumpkin at midnight. Enough said.
Gray hairs. I've had a little gray in my temples for a few years. Now I'm getting a few grays on top. No big deal really, just a sign of things to come.
The day-after effects of touch football feels like the equivalent of having suited up for the Chicago Bears

On the Eve of Thanskgiving

2006-11-22T08:11:00.000-06:00

I'll be in the office for a couple hours today, then packing the van and driving over the interstate and through the cornfields to grandmother's house. Not my grandmother, but my childrens' grandmother. Michelle is excited to be among the 40 branches that will hang from the Ober family tree this week as uncles and cousins gather for Thanksgiving.

I'm thankful to be taking my family of four to see our extended family -- thankful that we have a family in Des Moines and Cedar Rapids that we would care to spend our holidays with. While no family escapes a certain level of dysfunctionality, God has certainly blessed us with a lot of love and support that we cherish.

I'm also thankful for all that God has provided this past year -- enough income to pay the bills, enough health to keep us on our feet, enough truth to help us spiritually grow, and enough grace to call us His own.

Have a blessed Thanksgiving!

Greed

2006-11-20T09:14:00.000-06:00

I'm sure you saw the same footage over the weekend that I did -- adults standing in line outside their local Walmarts and other retailers for hours (even days) waiting for the release of the new Playstation. And, the headlines of riots, and even shootings, as grown men and women positioned themselves near the front doors to make a mad dash for the electronics department.

My church-planting friend Matt Payne wrote on his blog that he walked into a Best Buy, assuming that all the gaming machines had been snapped up, only to find that his timing was perfect -- a new shipment had arrived. He bought it, listed it on eBay, and accepted a bid of $1250 within hours! Are you kidding me???

I haven't owned one of these kinds of game machines since the first Nintendo release back in the early 90's (I do play computer games, however, I've never bought a computer solely for the purpose of playing games). Those Nintendoes retailed for, what, a hundred bucks? The, $30 for a game that you got tired of after a month or two?

I'm not sure what facet of this story is the most troubling:

That people are willing to sleep overnight, on the filthy ground, in 20-degree weather, outside Best Buy for one of these machines
That people show up with handguns and shoot each other so they can inch closer to the door of the store
That people who complain about gas prices being high, healthcare costs skyrocketing, and other economic hazards can afford to pluck down $300 on a game machine
That some of those same people will bid $1000 or more on eBay for the same machine

I talk with people every day in my financial practice at New York Life who fret over making a $50 life insurance payment or contribution to their ROTH IRA. I was reminded yesterday at church of how much financial sacrifice missionaries make to minister outside of their home countries. My parents recently returned from their trip to Kenya -- no Playstation 3's hitting the shelves in downtown Nairobi, that's for sure.

Far be it from me to judge other people's spending motives, as I'm sure some of my spending habits could be called into question. But ... greed is real, isn't it? A good thing to think about as we head into the holiday season and balance the joy of Jesus' birth with the tradition of gift-giving.

Giving the People what they Want

2006-11-13T07:56:00.000-06:00

A couple of odds and ends about recent news ...

I debated about what to write concerning Ted Hagerty, the pastor out in Colorado whose sin was so publicly exposed two weeks ago. I haven't decided what I want to say about his situation, so I'm punting. Obviously, the church has taken a hit because of his actions. Obviously, he needs the grace of God that we all do. Obviously, it is a situation easy for all of us to judge, yet, I don't feel compelled to do so.
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I didn't get my Iowa/Wisconsin prediction posted. I was counting on a Wisconsin win. The game was closer than I would have given Iowa credit for. In case the end of my week gets nutso, I'll come out now and say that Iowa drops its final game to Minnesota also, and finishes 6-6. Minnesota is playing for a bowl game, and perhaps to save its coach from firing.
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The election was a bigger blowout than most of us Republican-leaning types could have imagined. Both at the state and national level, Dems gained governing majorities. Let's see what they do with it between now and 2008.
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TV Guardian has given us what we want. For those unfamiliar with the product, TV Guardian is a device that filters objectionable language from visual media. You hook TV Guardian up to your DVD player, and by using the closed captioning code, the product mutes obscenities of your choice (there are several levels of language censoring to choose from).

We didn't actually buy a separate TV Guardian device. Instead, we purchased an inexpensive RCA DVD player from Walmart ($46.97) that has TV Guardian built in. I read recently that these special DVD players were being discontinued (TV Guardian as a stand-alone machine retails for about $100), so I decided to snatch one up. Friday afternoon I hooked up the new DVD player to our existing DVD player/recorder. We test drove the setup Friday night watching "The Rookie," a family-friendly movie save for just a couple of phrases. Michelle and I had previously seen the film, but had chosen not to have the kids watch.

The results were good. TV Guardian muted the two or three phrases we were hoping it would catch, plus a few others that we would not have considered objectionable. When you program TV Guardian, you can choose to have the words muted (the sound goes completely dead for a couple seconds) or have the closed captioning provide replacement phrases in print at the bottom of the screen. We chose muting, and were pleased with the results. To additionally test TV Guardian, I threw in "Dances with Wolves" and watched a few scenes. TV Guardian worked equally well.

There will come a day when we will not be able to keep our kids from hearing offensive language -- when our goal will change from sheltering to overcoming. But at 10 and 7, why not shelter? Why intentionally introduce questionable language or other temptations before they know how to spiritually respond to it? We think too many parents give in to allowing their kids to view questionable programs (just because it says Disney doesn't mean its good).

There are so many enjoyable films that are marred by the presence of a few obscene words inexplicably tossed in ("ET" comes to mind, and "The Princess Bride"). We look forward to sharing G-rated versions of these films with our kids in the near future.

Mac and the Knife

2006-11-09T07:44:00.000-06:00

A little play on words from the Bobby Darin 1960s hit for my older readers (namely my parents).

The other Mac, Iowa State football coach Dan McCarney, met the knife Wednesday evening as the University's athletic director announced the "resignation" of the winningest coach in school history. Unfortunately for Coach Mac, he was also the losingest coach. That's what happens when you stay in one place for 12 years, and that place happens to be a subpar football school in an above par football conference.

Saying that revenue drives the entire athletic department (nay, the whole world) and football is the prime vehicle for earning revenue, AD Jamie Pollard tearfully said he had to replace Dan McCarney, using language that insinuated that he had no choice. "Coach McCarney is one of the biggest reasons I came to Iowa State," said Pollard. Pollard and McCarney both said that the football program could not afford a divided fan base.

During McCarney's tenure at ISU, the Cyclones played mediocre football, but created enough highlights to keep most fans happy. McCarney had more total losses than wins, and more conference losses than wins. He had a winning record against 1-AA opponents, and a .500 average against the Iowa Hawkeyes. The latter statistic was likely the most significant achievement in fans' eyes. ISU played in six bowl games (none of much prestige, however), winning two (the only wins in school history). Mac fought for improved facilities and got them. He pleaded for fan support, and was marginally successful.

But, in the end (as Pollard admitted), this is all about money. Jack Trice Stadium holds 45,814. Because of grassy seating areas that don't count as seats, you can cram about 56,000 in. If a seat costs $30 a pop, gate receipts for a home contest come to $1.68 million. If each fan spends another $6 on refreshments, that comes to about $2 million if the staidium is full. The you got the licensing fees from $40 sweatshirts and the like.

But, if you average only 40,000 fans, you miss out on half-a-million bucks. Conversely, if you filled the stadium with such regularity that it warranted adding 10,000 seats (see Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City), that's an increase of about a half million. A million bucks at Iowa State probably fully funds several sports, like cross country, soccer, softball and the like. Or, it pays almost the entire salary of the head football coach.

I'll be shocked ... shocked ... if the next 12 years at Iowa State are better football years than the last 12 have been. But the more important question is clearly this -- will the new coach be able to put fannies in the seats? If so, success will (apparently) be achieved.

Election Overdose

2006-11-06T07:39:00.000-06:00

One more day until election day. One more day of commercials. I'm making a personal pledge to not answer my home phone tonight, turn on the television, or listen to commercial radio. I've had enough.

Years ago the runup to an election excited me. My first television memory is of watching the returns of the Jimmy Carter-Gerald Ford election of 1976. I was six years old. My dad was a high school government teacher at the time. I suspect (though I haven't asked) that he cast his vote for the Democrat Carter -- perhaps his last vote cast to a Democrat running for President.

In high school, we enjoyed receiving occasional visits from politicians. Our former US representative Tom Tauke came one year. So did his opponent. The most acclaimed visit was by then Vice President George Bush, who in 1988 was running for President. They cleared the school out searching for weapons, then lined us all up to enter the gymnasium, where we waited for Bush 41 to arrive.

Living in Iowa and holding the first-in-the-nation presidential caucus, we get to see every candidate even thinking about running for president. I've had my picture taken with Steve Forbes, shook hands with Alan Keyes, and stood 100 feet from President Bush 43.

This year, our Governor Tom Vilsack has his eye on the national political scene and has chosen not to stand for re-election. Representative Jim Nussle has thrown his hat into the ring to replace Vilsack, vacating his seat in Washington. So, though there is no presidential election this cycle, there are plenty of state and local races being contested. The newspaper reported yesterday that more than $15 million will be spent by the two candidates running for governor. The price tag for a US Representative seat is probably $5-7 million.

Politics has changed. Many of the men who served their states in Congress during the first years after our nation's birth did so begrudgingly. Reluctantly. Once their term was over, they couldn't wait to leave Washington D.C. and get back to their normal lives. Now, politicians are more likely to be lifelong professionals. Their "pre-office" days are in preparation for running. They build a reputation as a party supporter, give big money to support party candidates, and get to know the right party people. Once elected, it is for life (not necessarily in one government position). Remember a few election cycles back when term limits were all the rage -- candidates promising not to serve longer then "x" years? Nobody's running on that platform anymore. Those that did have not left office like they promised. And, how could they? Their party needs them to run, and run, and run again, so as not to risk giving away politcal power to the opposing party.

Negative campaigning. It's at an all-time high. It must work, or people wouldn't do it. Those of us who say we hate watching and listening to negative ads share the blame, because we reward negativity with our vote.

When I vote tomorrow, it will be out of a sense of duty and obligation, not because I am compelled by the vision of those running. I will vote for Jim Nussle and for Jim Leach, and others who are mostly Republican candidates. To be honest, I don't really know much of what they stand for. I don't really know the kind of men they are when the tv cameras are turned off. I don't know if they are men who will do what's best for me, my friends, and my country.

Frankly, I don't think we ever really know. And when it gets right down to it, maybe these men don't know themselves.

Declawing the Mildcats

2006-11-03T08:19:00.000-06:00

Iowa is bowl eligible. That's the obvious plus that came out of last week's game against Northern Illinois. While the score was not as close as I had predicted, it was a close game that left some fans distraught. I knew it would be tight. Iowa did not cover the betting spread.

This week Northwestern comes to turn. The Wildcats are Mildcats, having yet to win a Big Ten game. Prior to the season's first kickoff Northwestern lost their head coach to a fatal heart attack. They also had graduated their fine quarterback. The combination has drug the team into the cellar. They will not see any light this week.

Iowa proved it can win with either its starting QB or his backup. That's a comforting thing to know. Drew Tate is the apparent starter this week, bum thumb and all. Look for Iowa to get out to an early lead and take its foot off the gas later in the game.

Iowa 27
Northwestern 14

Calling the Spread

2006-10-27T08:29:00.000-05:00

I'm not much of a gambler. Outside of a friendly, low key NCAA tournament pool and $10 in a cruise ship casino, I don't recall ever wagering money.

Just for fun, I signed up this past fall for a college football pick'em contest through Yahoo. Each week you pick the winner of 18-20 games featuring nationally recognizable teams. Not only do you have to pick a winner, but you have to pick against the spread. So, if Iowa and Michigan are playing and Michigan is a 13 point favorite (this was the case last week), picking Iowa means that you expect them to win, or lose by less than 13. If you pick Michigan, they must win by 13 or more to count it as a successful pick.

I've been amazed by the number of games where the spread is dead-on accurate. It's a reminder that you're really not supposed to win money when you gamble -- at least, not a lot of money. Just enough to keep you coming back, so you'll bet (and lose) again.

Iowa did not cover the spread last week, thanks to a late-game Michigan touchdown. Ironically, most fans thought Iowa played a great game. Yet if you had bet on Iowa losing by less than 13 points, you lost your coin.

I don't know what the spread is for this week's game against Northern Illinois (it doesn't happen to be one of the pick'em games). But I see a challenging game ahead for Iowa. Northern Illinois has one of the nation's best running backs. If Iowa can shut him down, they might pass for 300 yards. But Iowa's biggest concern is the absence of starting QB Drew Tate. Iowa's ofense has been inconsistent, and could lay an egg Saturday.

I think the game might be uncomfortably close. If the weather is cold and wet, anything could happen. Hawk fans, cross your fingers and rub your rabbit foot.

Iowa 16
Northern Illinois 13

Volunteering for Prison

2006-10-24T08:30:00.000-05:00

On a personality scale of 1-10, with "1" being so creative that nobody understands you, and "10" being so logical that you don't understand anyone else, I am a "5". Maybe a "4.5". My creative and logical sides are of nearly equal proportion. I can talk the language with both ends of the spectrum, and not feel entirely comfortable with either one. I like other "5s" the most.

I've always viewed people who tie themselves to a set schedule as on their way to 10. Prisoners to a calendar. Inmates in "time jail." No freedom, no flexibility, no spontaneity. Some of those people even carry their calendar with them every minute of the day (easier now with handheld devices).

Would you believe that I'm now praying to become more like "those people?"

My responsibilities at work, home and church are catching up to me. It's not that I don't have time for it all -- it's that I don't use my time well. Nearly every day, my creative side beats up my logical side and carries me into the world of "fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants." That's a fun world. Extra long lunch? I'm there. Telephone call to discuss the burning issue of the day? Count me in. Last minute "optional" meeting. Let's get it started.

But that world has consequences. My work suffers. My wife wonders when I'll be home for her and the kids (its not that I'm not consistently home, its that the "when" is an unknown). My friends probably think I don't have any responsibilities (not true, I just shove those responsibilities to the back burner too easily when they call).

Somewhere along the road I remember hearing (or reading) that sin is much easier to overcome when you expose it to light. That is, that you let someone else know. The word there is "accountability." While I don't know that my lack of calendar-carrying is sin, I do know that I am not as self-disciplined as I need to be, which I think can lead to sin.

So, this week I have put together a weekly calendar that accounts for some of the things I enjoy doing, and some of the things that I don't enjoy:

Calling prospective clients (don't like)
Exercise (don't like)
Administrative work at the office (don't like)
In depth Bible study (enjoy, but hard to sit down and get started)
Family devotionals and reading time (enjoy, but too easy to skip)
Appointments with clients (enjoy, but don't get to have them without making the phone calls)
Ministry work (enjoy, as long as I don't spread too thin)
Personal free time to blog and read (enjoy too much)

More importantly than creating the calendar, I've given draft copies to my wife and to five men at church. I'll also be giving my dad a copy. The goal is to have others know what I am striving for, so that there is accountability. Also, that this support team would be praying about this.

I feel there is a lot at stake. Even marginal success should result in more income, losing weight, more quality time with my family, and a closer relationship to God.

Anyone out there in the same boat I'm in? Or, has anyone successfully climbed this mountain before and now enjoying the plateau? I'd be interested in your thoughts.

Maize and Blue Gives Black and Blue

2006-10-20T09:13:00.000-05:00

Iowa's disastrous game last Saturday against Indiana has been well-chronicled in the local media. The bottom line is two-fold. First, that a loss to Indiana should not have happened at this stage of the Iowa program. But second, that's why the game is played and predictions aren't worth the paper (or the electronic media device) they're printed on.

I looked back to previous blog entries this fall and noticed that I never gave a season projection of wins for the Iowa team. I had meant to. So, while it may appear to be cheating now that the season is half over, my prediction would have been (you just half to trust me):

9-3

I would have said that Iowa loses to Ohio State. I would have said that Iowa would lose to either Iowa State, Wisconsin, or Purdue. And I would have said that Iowa loses to Michigan.

Of course, Iowa did lose to Ohio State. Since Iowa has beaten ISU and Purdue, it stands to reason that I think Iowa can (and will) be beaten by Wisconsin. And this weekend, Iowa will lose to Michigan. Couple those predictions with Iowa's unexpected loss, and I think the team will finish 8-4.

This weekend could be brutal. Michigan has the best run defense in the conference (maybe the country). Iowa's first string guy is hurt, third string guy is hurt, and the second string guy has a recent habit of fumbling. If Iowa can't run, that means QB Drew Tate will have to pass 40-50 times. I'm comfortable with Tate passing, but I'm not comfortable with the guys on the receiving end. There have been a lot of missed routes and dropped balls this year among Iowa's inexperienced and less talented receiving corps. The breakout guy of the year, Dominque Douglas, may be hobbling due to an injury suffered last week.

I don't like the way this game is setting up. If Iowa looked bad against OSU at home, I think the result at Michigan may be worse. With that in mind ...

Iowa 17
Michigan 38

Want your Opinion

2006-10-18T09:28:00.000-05:00

OK readers (all seven of you) -- I'd like you to put on your thinking caps and ponder a theological question with me.

There is a difference of opinion in Christian circles about the way God communicates with His people. I'll do my best to briefly describe position A and position B.

Position A
God communicates with Christians today in a variety of ways that involve the receipt of a specific prompting from God. This might be best described as an "inner voice" God. For example, God might tell you through some clear but somewhat unexplanable nudge that you should take Friday off to play golf. Or, in a more serious vain, God would respond to your prayer of "Who should I marry" by telling you "It's her, what are you waiting for?" Some holding position A might believe that they literally hear the audible voice of God speaking to them. Most would more likely say that they simply "feel" God communicating with them -- leading them in a particular direction. So, in this position, God is very active, and is advising His children regularly.

Position B
God communicates with Christians today by the same method He has used for 1,950 years -- solely through the Bible. The Word of God has been recorded by the authors of the Old Testament and New Testament. In it, God provides commands and principles for living a Godly life. When we accept Christ as Savior, we are regenerated (given new life) and become capable of responding to God's commands through the grace given us. Those holding position B would say that God does not directly speak to us in audible or inaudable voices. Instead, as a Spirit-filled Christian, our own reasoning and understanding of God's Word is sufficient to help us make good moral decision. In the marriage example, someone supporting position B would say that God does not care who you marry -- as long as the selection of your mate follows the principles that God has laid out in the Bible. Furthermore, that God would not communicate anything on the subject to you, beyond what can be reasoned when reading the Bible.

The Problem with Position A ...
How do you know when God is speaking, or when it is your own reasoning? And, if you conclude that it is God speaking, then you must conclude that God is providing millions of specific (and private) commands to people today. Failure to follow one of these commands would be sin. Failure to even know that God is speaking would also be sin. Also, if God does communicate this way, what are specific Scriptures that guide us about how to receive and interpret God's voice?

The Problem with Position B ...
What is the purpose of prayer? When Jesus says that we should "ask and it will be given to you," doesn't that indicate that God is in the business of responding to our requests? How many times have Christians prayed for the safe travel of a friend, or the healing of a family member. Are these prayers in vain because God doesn't operate in that way? And when we pray for wisdom to do this or that, we would have to conclude that, outside of what God has already revealed through the Bible, that no further wisdom is attainable from God. In other words, we make every decision by ourself.

If you need more clarification of the issue, ask. Otherwise, I look forward to receiving your thoughts. I know that most of you readers are thinking Christians, so I truly hope you will reply.

Seeing Red

2006-10-12T09:43:00.000-05:00

Just four days ago I was at Kinnick Stadium in Iowa City, basking in the glow of an Iowa blowout over Purdue and an even more robust glow from the 82-degree sun. The left side of my face and the tops of my knees sunburned while the Hawks burned the Boilermakers interior defensive line. Oh, how quickly things change. This morning in Cedar Rapids there is a dusting of snow on the ground and temps are in the high 30's.

Also changed is the opponent for this week's game. Iowa travels to Indiana to face the Hoosiers. Indiana is one of three teams in the Big Ten (Illinois and Northwestern are the other two) that should be gimme wins for everyone else in the conference. Of course, that's what Hawk fans said two days before Iowa played Illinois and Syracuse -- both wins, but by the slimmest of margins.

This Iowa team is a tough one to figure out. They played a bad game against an outstanding Ohio State team. The played a great game against an above average Purdue squad. They were aweful against the two teams dressed in orange, and just fine in wins over teams of red (Iowa State and Montana -- I'll call Ohio State a silver team).

Maybe Iowa is a team whose performance can be predicted by color. Good on red, great on gold, suspect against orange. What about blue (Michigan) and purple (Northwestern)?

This week is a red team. Look for Iowa to come out and play a red game -- not too flashy, but gets the job done. Then, we get ready for a blue week (might be blue in more ways than one).

Iowa 27
The Red Team in Indiana 14

Proverbs 11

2006-10-11T09:09:00.000-05:00

Proverbs 11:22

Like a gold ring in a pig's snout is a beautiful woman who shows no discretion.

I couldn't let that one slip by.

Three proverbs of common theme appear back-to back-to back in this chapter -- 11:24, 25, and 26: "One man gives freely, yet gains even more; another withholds unduly, but comes to poverty. A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed. People curse the man who hoards grain, but blessing crowns him who is willing to sell."

Said in three different ways -- the man who puts other people's needs above his own will receive even greater blessing than what he is giving up. That's a hard lesson for men in the 21st century of the United States. It has been a hard lesson for me personally.

A couple of other thoughts. While Solomon uses the word "man" here, I doubt this is a proverb intended for men only. On the other hand, I think the theme of these verses is harder for men to adopt than women. Generally speaking, aren't women more generous than men -- with their time, their money, their kind words. It may be an extension of the notion that women seem to be more relational-oriented, while men are task-achievers.

The most inspiring of these proverbs for me is the middle one: "A generous man will prosper; he who refreshes others will himself be refreshed." "Refreshing others" is not about giving away your house, or even a $20 bill. Instead, it denotes something more emotional, more personal. How do we refresh others? With words of encouragement, expressions of gratitude, acknowledgements of effort, and praise. Again, a hard teaching for most of us men to consistently follow. We've got to really go out of our way to do this, because it probably doesn't come naturally.

Not coincidentally, these proverbs fit pretty snugly with what we call the Golden Rule -- treat others as you would like to be treated. How many of us love to receive words of praise and gratitude? Is it possible that the more we hand out these expressions to others (genuinely, of course), the more we receive back?

Proverbs 10

2006-10-10T08:54:00.000-05:00

Here are a few of Solomon's nuggets of wisdom from the 10th chapter of Proverbs:

Prov 10:4 Lazy hands make a man poor, but diligent hands bring wealth.
I have always struggled to put the literalness of Proverbs into proper perspective. It can't possibly be absolute for all people at all times, in all places, can they? It's sort of like the Farmer's Almanac predicting the weather -- some general principles, generally correct, but not 100 percent. Do the hands of all diligent people bring wealth, and the hands of all lazy people bring poverty? Is this referring simply to money, or to other, less tangible, riches? I do know that when I am lazy, my income suffers. So does the quality of other facets of my life.

Prov 10:9 The man of integrity walks securely, but he who takes crooked paths will be found out.
Have you ever taken a crooked path and then held your breath wondering when someone will find out and call you on the carpet for your wayward steps? Oh, I hate that feeling of knowing I've been foolish, and then waiting for the consequence. Sometimes I wonder if the anxious waiting isn't the punishment in and of itself.

Prov 10:12 Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs.
Why is it that Jesus, when asked what the most important of God's commands are, simply replies, "Love the Lord with all your heart .... and love your neighbor as you love yourself." Because love covers a multitude of sin. How many misunderstandings are the result of a lack of trust? Isn't a lack of trust simply a result of lacking confidence in someones love for us?

Prov 10:19 When words are many, sin is not absent, but he who holds his tongue is wise.
Ever been in a conversation where someone ended up slandering another person, or gossiping, because their mouth ran on overtime? It started as a nice conversation, but took a turn for the sinful simply because too much was being said? I hate that. I hate when it's me doing the running-at-the-mouth. This is a hard one for me, because people generally regard me as outgoing and conversational. When I am quiet, people ask, "What's wrong?" Sometimes something is wrong. But often, I'm just trying to hold my tongue.

Gold on Gold

2006-10-05T08:20:00.000-05:00

The point spread got a little out of control last week in the Iowa-Ohio State game. Blame it on quarterback Drew Tate and Iowa's need to go all pass after it fell behind in the second half. That's a lot of pressure on an above average (but not great) QB who is apparently suffering from a painful abdominal injury.

This week I will be among the 70,000 at Kinnick, thanks to my parents still being out of town and their tickets needing a user. My father-in-law Dick and I will be on the 32 yard line expecting a big victory.

Purdue is a pass-happy team that is a little defense. Iowa is going to run, run, run until it proves it can, and then it will run some more. If the run isn't working, only then will the Hawks consistently put the ball in the air. When Purdue has the ball, it will drive Iowa fans crazy with the five yard passes all day long.

I look for an Iowa win, for sure, but the point prediction is tough. Will the game be close? Will it be high scoring or low? I think it will be a close game, and the score will be medium. Lets call it ...

Iowa 24
PU 20

Baseball Blowout

2006-10-04T08:34:00.000-05:00

The Major League baseball regular season just came to a close, and with it, the fantasy Iowa Farm League.

I was out of the race early. A number of my players spent significant time healing from injures early in the season (I was in third place in late May). Then, my biggest stars were traded from the National League to the American League, and nothing of value came back in return. This pushed Hags Hawgs down to 11th place in a two month span (July and August). In early September I made a number of moves, essentially giving up on most offensive categories, and focusing on three categories I thought I could win -- saves, holds, and WHIP. The strategy worked, and I gained four places in the standings. In the final tally, I was seventh in the league -- better than 11th, but not nearly as good as I had hoped leaving the draft table. I won the three statistical categories I could, but had little else I could muster.

In the world of real baseball, I have lost some interest this past year. My Cubs lost their studs Derek Lee, Mark Prior, and Kerry Woods early on, and have now fired their manager Dusty Baker. Their record was the worst among National League teams. Beyond the Cubs, the NL almost resembles AAA baseball, compared to the American League. Big budget AL teams in New York, Boston, Toronto, Baltimore, Texas, Chicago and LA have been buying NL talent for several years now. I think this will be reflected in the World Series this year, just as it has shown up in recent playoffs and All-Star games.

In my opinion, baseball needs to inforce a salary cap like the National Football League, thereby allowing smaller market teams to compete on a level playing field. Who are some of the leading teams in the NFL? Kansas City, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Denver, Green Bay (until recently). Those same cities have poor baseball franchises, or none at all, because of the fan base.

Next year's IFL draft is just six months away (the baseball season is a long one). I'll be ready.

Saturday Night Lights

2006-09-28T08:19:00.000-05:00

The biggest thing in regular season college athletics is coming to Iowa tomorrow. ESPN GameDay is on its way to Iowa City to broadcast the Saturday evening football game between the Iowa Hawkeyes and The Ohio State University Buckeyes. The eyes of collegiate football fans will soak up the sights and sound of Iowa City for a couple of days, and the atmosphere of Kinnick Stadium for three hours.

How do you know that Iowa football is not a national power (and may never be).? Simple -- ESPN GameDay is an exceptional happening. This is not your average week of football in Eastern Iowa. Everyone remotely interested in the Hawkeyes knows that their team is in the spotlight Saturday night like they haven't been for 14 years. In fact (as Blue would say), that's a clue! Fans can remember the last time there was a night game at Kinnick (1992 against Miami) and the last time GameDay was in town (1985 vs. Ohio State).

When was GameDay last in Columbus? Last week. South Bend, College Station, Lincoln, Los Angeles? Very recently. Those are a few of the hometowns of college football programs who are truly powers.

So, what kind of impression will the Hawks leave on the 18 million people that tune in at 7 p.m. on Saturday night? Ah, that is the question every fan is asking -- is this Iowa team for real?

Iowa is for real, as is the homefield atmosphere that will be like a 12th man on the field in black and gold. But is Iowa ready to play and beat the unanimous #1 team in the country, with the unanimous #1 star?

Nope, at least I haven't seen anything yet this year that indicates so.

And so while it pains me to have to pick against Iowa, it must be done. Iowa drops their first game of the season this week. Look for a poor showing the first half of the game, with some recovery in the second half.

Iowa: 17
Ohio State: 27

Pope Need not Backpeddle

2006-09-25T15:54:00.000-05:00

The Pope has been in the news the past couple of weeks. Seems he made the mistake of being too pro-Christian. Isn't that in the Pope's job description?

What really happened is that the Pope quoted one of his papal fathers from the 15th century, who essentially said that the Muslim religion offered nothing new to the world except for brutality. In light of global terrorism in the 21st century and the Middle Eastern nations that are largely followers of the Muslim faith, I guess its understandable that the Pope caught a little flak for his comments. Now he's backpeddling, calling for peace and harmony. Soon, he'll trade his Popemobile in for a 1960s hippie bus (aka Volkswagon van).

What is all the fuss about? Jesus said very plainly that Mohammed, Buddha, and everyone else is a sham. When Jesus says, "I am the way, the truth and the light. No one comes to the Father but by Me," what is he really saying? Hmmmm .... I'll bet THE Way, THE truth, and THE light means just that -- there is only one way, truth and light. When he says the no one comes to the Father except through him, I assume that to be NO ONE. Even a remnant of God's chosen people, the nation of Israel, will be saved through the Jesus their forefathers rejected 2000 years ago.

It's not politically correct for Christ followers to come right out and say, in plain English, that Christianity is the only way. It is true, but not popular. The fact that the Pope accidentally managed to be too pro-Christ is a good thing. The fact that he is all but retracting his comments now is unfortunate. Next time he will probably do what most pseudo-Christians do when confronted by a microphone and an opportunity to be clear about defending Jesus the Messiah -- duck the question and flash a peace symbol.

I'm all for peace, but not at the expense of truth. And I didn't make the rules -- God did. It's not my fault He wants to be the singular God of all creation. It was His plan, not mine, that Jesus be the sole guardian of the narrow road to eternal life. As a Christian, my job is to speak the truth, and to do so as lovingly as possible. That's the job description of the Pope, George Bush, and all who claim Christ as their Savior ... even when its not the popular thing to do.

Weekend Update

2006-09-21T07:16:00.000-05:00

On Friday my parents will be leaving for two weeks on a missions trip to Kenya, to work with a husband and wife team who take troubled kids off the streets of downtown Nairobi and help reshape their lives. I'm proud of my parents for making the financial and physical sacrifice to go. I hope that it is a lifechanging experience for them in many ways. Namely, that it will energize their faith and make them hunger for serving the Lord for years to come.

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On Saturday night we are having our new neighbors over for dinner. They moved in a couple of months ago, and have children of similar age to ours. Michelle and I have moved five times in our 13 years of marriage. Not once have we had neighbors that invited us for dinner. Only on a few occasions have we even had neighbors that acknowledged our presence beyond a rushed "hello" in the driveway. We haven't been much better ourselves, and we've talked aboiut how we want to improve that. So, here's the first step.

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The Hawks play Illinois this Saturday. This should be a game between one of the best three teams in the Big Ten against one of the worst three conference teams. Look for Iowa's running backs to get a lot of work, and Tate to have a good (but not great) day.

Iowa: 28
Illinois: 10

Web Design for Dummies

2006-09-20T14:54:00.000-05:00

Spend any time surfing the Internet or checking the weird stuff that comes into your spam e-mail box, and you'll see all kinds of offers like "Design a website for free," or "Be live on the Internet in minutes."

All good-sounding things are too good to be true, right? Nothing's free, and if you're a web neophyte like me, nothing's easy.

For the past three weeks I have been working on a new Internet site for New Life Community Church. Since I was new to the project and just wanted to get something up and running, I went into "task mode" and have been working feverishly while not working for pay.

After running into a couple of dead ends, I decided to use the online design tools, hosting, and domain registration of GoDaddy. GoDaddy is an Arizona-based company founded by Bob Parsons, who used to own a thriving software company in Cedar Rapids called Parsons Technology. I worked for Bob for two years (well, not for Bob, but for the guy, who worked for the guy, who worked for Bob). GoDaddy also has a production/design office in Cedar Rapids, which employs a few of the old Parsons programmers.

GoDaddy's big come-on is "cheap and easy." Too good to be true?

Well, it is pretty cheap. I have the domain reserved for two years, the web hosting and design software for a year, and the capability of 400 alias e-mail accounts, all for $150. The site can have as many pages as I want to design and seems to have good storage capacity for something as simplistic as a church website.

Is it easy? Kind of. Designing the site itself was not hard. With a few steps backward here and there, I was basically able to guide myself through the tools without a lot of anguish. As you can see, the site isn't anything special, pretty simple and clean.

The transfer of the domain name from RegisterFly to GoDaddy was harder than it should have been. The two companies kept telling me they were waiting on the other one to send the right transfer authorizations. Of course, I had no way of knowing who was telling the truth. All I know is that I had to make a few too many phone calls and e-mail inquiries to call the process "easy."

GoDaddy says that you can use their web-based design tools even using 28.8 dialup. Maybe you can, but you wouldn't want to. No, no, no. Even with my broadband connection I think the tools work a little slow. But then again, my 5 year-old laptop computer isn't winning any processing awards.

This is the first day the website has been live. But if I were to judge the GoDaddy "cheap and easy" claim, I'd give it a B+. If the site proves to not accidentally crash, or lose my photos, or be offline for a week, I'll upgrade the grade to an A-.

This and That

2006-09-18T09:00:00.000-05:00

I just about nailed the Iowa-Iowa State score this past weekend ... a field goal kicked with 40 seconds left bounced off the left goal and through, giving Iowa a 10 point win instead of the 7 I predicted. Both teams played a good game. Contrary to what I previously wrote, Illinois (not Ohio State) is next for Iowa. More about that later this week.

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The Internet is a strange place. More specifically, it's interesting to see how information gets sorted and listed. I discovered in a recent Google search that my little blog can be found by searching for topics like "acid reflex disease," "Amana golf," and most interestingly, "Nuclear Management Company" (because of my blog posting on September 11.) There aren't any permission slips on the Internet, of course. Content can be shuffled around any old way somebody wants to use it. That's a good lesson that things aren't always as they appear to be out in cyberspace.

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I'm preparing to teach a finance class at church the next two months. I'm looking forward to my own preparation, and sharing a few thoughts both in class and on this site.

CyHawk

2006-09-14T07:12:00.000-05:00

Football in the state of Iowa reaches its annual pinnacle this weekend when Iowa and Iowa State square off. During Hayden Fry's glory years at Iowa, the Hawks owned the Cyclones. But since 1998, the Clones have taken six of eight games. In 2002, Iowa's only loss was in the second half to ISU.

A couple of subplots to the game this week:

Iowa QB Drew Tate sat out last Saturday with an injury. Iowa won without him, but only by the thinnest of hairs on backup Jason Manson's chin.
An Iowa win this week likely vaults Iowa back to #12 or so in the ratings. A win by Ohio State this week keeps them at #1. The two teams play next Saturday in Iowa City, in prime time on ABC.
Most people in these parts believe ISU traditionally plays their best game against the Hawks because they want the win more badly. That's probably not true, but its a good excuse for Iowa fans when their team loses. This year, particularly, I don't think there's any chance whatsoever that the black-and-gold are looking past the cardinal-and-gold.

There's no doubt that Iowa should have a better defense than ISU. The bigger question is this: which team has a better QB/RB combination? ISU's Meyers and Hicks have a statistical advantage over Iowa's Tate/Manson/Young two weeks into the season. I have a hard time believing Hicks will run well against Iowa's defense, but Young may do no better against the Clones. Iowa traditionally has trouble with scrambling QG's like Meyers. Will Tate go all the way, or will he get hit in the ribs early in the game and take a seat on the bench?

I'm making two predictions for this Saturday.

If Tate plays four quarters:
Iowa 24
Iowa State 17

If Manson is the man:
Iowa 16
Iowa State 14
(Iowa wins with a field goal in the last minute of the game)

September 11, 2001

2006-09-11T09:16:00.000-05:00

Today will be filled with tributes regarding the events of September 11, 2001. It would have been, regardless of the number of years. But anniversaries ending in "5" and "0" always attract the most attention. I wonder if the news programs and semi-fictional documentaries on tap today are truly meant to honor what happened, or if they are simply produced to garner coveted television ratings that determine advertising rates. Call me cynical.

For my part, 9/11 was a very memorable day. It began with me sitting at my desk in my office at Rockwell Collins ... wearing a suit. At 11 a.m. that morning, I was scheduled to drive out to the nuclear power plant in Palo for an interview with the Nuclear Management Co. The corporate communications director position was open, and I was applying.

Of course, I spent the balance of the morning trying to find an internet news source that would load into my browser -- internet traffic brought everything to a standstill that day. Up and down the halls at work those who had radios were turning them up so all could hear. At a company like RC that makes communications equipment for airplanes, the news of the day carried long-lasting ramifications. It wasn't just big national news -- it was news that impacted the company right on the bottom line.

When I arrived at the power plant, I had to wait at the gate for 45 minutes. Security at power plants went into high mode once the plane crashes were identified as terrorism. When I was finally cleared to enter the plant, the interview was the last thing on everyone's mind. Those that interviewed me came and went freely, and whispered to each other while I answered their questions. They apologized for having other things to attend to. I understood. When I left the plant, there was no question in my mind that I wasn't going to be called back -- it would have been better had we simply rescheduled. It was, and still is, the only job I have interviewed for that was not offered to me.

Two months later, I began to talk with my dad about a career with New York Life.

Much will be said today about how the world is so much different post 9/11 then pre 9/11. I understand that point of view, but I don't share it. The world is about the same now as then. It is unfortunate that many men and women have died in recent years as a result of the United States war on terror. And it is somewhat disconcerting to always be reminded that terrorism can strike anytime and anywhere.

If 9/11/01 proved anything, it was that we live in a world that is temporary, and that life itself is temporary. It demonstrates that bad things happen to good people. It reminds us that even on a sunny fall day when all appears good, there are unseen forces at work.

Black, Gold and Orange

2006-09-07T08:27:00.000-05:00

Haven't posted as much recently due to being out of town for Labor Day, and returning to a full schedule of work and website building. No, the website is not mine, but rather, a refresh of the New Life site.

My season of football prognosticating got off to a great start with an Iowa win (41-7) right in line with what I said would happen (41-13). Now for week two. Iowa travels to New York for a game against Syracuse. Their football program is, by all accounts, dismal. Several years ago when the schedule was made, the Orange were a .500 team that fought to got to a throwaway bowl. In fact, they were a lot like Iowa as Ferentz in his third season.

But Iowa has gotten better, and Syracuse has gone down the tubes.

If this were a Big Ten game, it would be something like Iowa vs. another orange team, the Illini. I think the score will be similar to Iowa traveling to a place like Champaign-Urbana. Not a blowout like Montana, but not topnotch competition either.

The Hawks come home 2-0 hungry for dates with Iowa State, Ohio State and Purdue.

Iowa 31
Syracuse 10

Touchdown Iowa!

2006-08-30T08:34:00.000-05:00

It's the favorite saying of Iowa sports broadcaster Gary Dolphin, and music to the ears of rabid Iowa Hawkeye football fans. I expect it will be an oft-repeated phrase this fall.

The college football season begins this week on Thursday with a smattering of games across the country. Saturday will be opening day at Kinnick Stadium, as the nationally ranked Hawks play host to the Grizzlies of Montana. The Montana 1-AA football program is a powerhouse among smaller schools. Iowa is predicted to be a powerhouse among the the nation's most recognized football factories.

This is the time of year when we all take a look at the schedule and make predictions about the team, based on almost no real inside information, and without evidence that anything we say has merit. In other words, its time to guess about wins and losses.

Here's the facts about Iowa. Returning senior quarterback that has proven skills. Returning junior running back that led the Big Ten conference last year. Returning defensive line that went from being a weakness to a strength during last seasons bowl run. Returning all conference kicker. The negatives -- relatively inexperienced defensive backfield and linebackers.

That negative is a problem. Iowa is notoriously strong against the run but weak against the pass. Add to that fact that many of the pass defenders are first year starters, and you got trouble. Add to that that something like eight Big Ten conference teams are returning their QB from last year, and its downright disgusting to think about teams racking up 350 passing games against the Hawks.

It should be a high scoring affair on both sides of the ball this fall. But not this coming week. Games like this one between Iowa and Montana are not won by the quarterback, running backs, or even safeties. They are won in the trenches -- O-Line vs. D-Line. It is in the trenches where the bigger, faster lines eventually wear down the smaller, slower lines. Sometimes it takes a quarter or two. That might be the case this Saturday.

I like the Hawks on most Saturdays this fall, especially this one. The season will start as it should, with a big win.

Iowa -- 41
Montana -- 13

The Colton Tribute

2006-08-29T10:09:00.000-05:00

Below is the article I wrote for the Cedar Rapids Gazette that was published last Thursday. Since anyone who would buy a newspaper has now done so, I thought I could post this.

One of my friends commented on the irony that a homeschool dad would write a positive article about a public school teacher, and about teachers in general. I admit that might seem strange. Here's a couple of responses:

I feel Mr. Colton was an extraordinary teacher. Many teachers are excellent. There are a few are abusive (verbally, physically, etc). It's the latter group that I'm uncomfortable with.
One reason for homeschooling is to control the learning pace of your child. You can go faster or slower, as the child's need is shown. Public education lacks this flexibility. Accelerated learners often are not challenged. Slower leaners are often labeled as such and struggle. This is not surprising ... how can a teacher with 20-25 kids in a single classroom give individual, customized instruction to all?
Public schools do not necessarily promote my values. Our homeschool certainly does.
Our children do utilize the public school system through the Cedar Rapids Homeschool Assistance Program (CRHSAP) http://homeschool.cr.k12.ia.us/. We are very pleased with the teachers we have encountered, and the activities the program provides. In exchangefor their services, the school receives state funding because our child is enrolled in the school district. It is a win-win.
Our kids may very well attend public school one day. They may also participate in extra-curricular activities like sports, band, and drama. If they do, I hope they will have a similar experience with their teachers as I had with Steve Colton.

Here is the article ...

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I was not the most talented music student at Linn-Mar High School in 1987. In fact, as a senior-to-be trombone player reporting to marching band camp, it might have taken two hands to count the number of peers that could take me down in a duel of scales.

As a freshman three years earlier, my parents had to strongly encourage me to even stay involved with band (coercion would be a more accurate term). “It might be fun,” my mom said more than once. “You’ve never been in marching band before,” was another oft-spoken appeal.

My band director-to-be was Steve Colton. Mr. Colton was a stick of a man, with large glasses that hung on a long, pointed nose. He was the stereotypical “band geek” that (in my eyes) had turned into a band geek adult. His saving grace was his bright red Camaro, with the broad black racing stripe down the hood. It roared into the parking lot every morning about 7 o’clock, and was the perfect car for a Linn-Mar employee (with its red-and-black scheme). Unquestionably, he had the coolest car in the teacher’s lot.

High school band is many things. It is a graded class for which credit is earned. It is marching band in the fall -- pep, jazz and concert bands in the winter and spring. It is a social petri dish where dozens of students with little in common learn to move and play as one. It is long practices, long bus rides, and exhilaration when everything comes together at performance time. And it is somewhat unique – I had the same instructor for eight semesters, for a minimum of an hour a day (and often three to four hours counting lessons and extra rehearsals.)

It was during those four years that I realized an important truth – teachers are regular people – and can even be your friends. From 1984-88, I was instructed, directed, counseled, corrected, challenged, encouraged, and befriended by Colton. No, I wasn’t the most gifted of students, or even the most dedicated. But, as all good educators do, he got the most from me possible. In doing so, he taught me the value of expecting more from myself.

When my senior year began, Colton asked me to play a solo during the marching band season, and featured solos in jazz band. He asked for my input on decisions that would impact future students. He wrote a letter of recommendation for my college applications. He played an important role in my life – one that went beyond what would have been required for him to collect a paycheck and for me to graduate.

In the 18 years that have since passed, it was a pleasure to visit with my former teacher now and again. We relived old memories, and reflected on changes in my life and his. He met my wife and children, was interested in my profession, and even recently became a client. He spoke enthusiastically about his grown children, travel plans, and how pleased he was to continue serving the Linn-Mar school district beyond retirement as a school board member. Most significantly, I was able to go beyond my relationship with “Mr. Colton.” I got to know Steve.

When Steve retired two years ago, I was fortunate to be able to express many of these thoughts to him – to tell him personally the impact that he had on my life. When I heard the news last week of his sudden death, I was glad that my words of appreciation had not been expressed too late for both he and I to enjoy.

Few people in our lives truly make a lasting impact. Educators must rank near the top. Most of us can remember the names of our homeroom teachers for each grade of school. We recall the coaches and sponsors who sweat with us during intense practices. In retrospect, we appreciate those that went the extra mile to challenge us, and in some cases, sacrifice their personal popularity for the sake of their students’ development.

In a culture that places such high value on material wealth and career advancement, the road of an educator can appear to be one of less worth. Many teachers could earn more working outside the classroom in the private sector. Some would certainly receive more notoriety. Yet, few would impact so many lives.

As we say goodbye to one teacher, our children are about to say hello to a man or woman that may just change their life. Our thanks go out to all those who will live forever as “Mister” and “Miss” in the minds of so many.

And thanks again, Steve, for a job -- and a life -- well done.

Brian Hagerman is a 1988 graduate of Linn-Mar High School and 1992 graduate of the University of Northern Iowa. He resides in Marion and is a Financial Services Professional with New York Life.

All Those Years Ago

2006-08-24T08:40:00.000-05:00

In 1981, ex-Beatle George Harrison responded to the death of his former bandmate and friend John Lennon by writing the song "All Those Years Ago." Harrison was famously "over" the Beatles by 1968, ready to chuck the band that had made him famous. But after 13 years, it was evident that the man who also wrote "Here Comes the Sun" had seen the light, and it had warmed him.

This week I've had a similar experience. It's not only my pen that has responded to the death of former teacher and friend Steve Colton, but my thoughts too. I've talked with old friends for the first time in a few years (in two cases its been 18 years since the last verbal exchange). The memories have flooded back. Some are cherished, others confusing, and a few that are just as irritating now as they were two decades ago.

What is most odd is that for a few minutes at a time this past week, I've felt 17 all over again. Though half my life has passed since my senior year of high school, it's almost scary how close it all seems. Yesterday, I asked a pair of my clients (ages 49 and 62) if that phenomenon ever goes away. They eached laughed and said, "No, never."

All those years ago, in August of 1987, I was practicing a short solo that I would play in marching band that fall. My best friends were within 20 yards of me at all times, on the marching band field, in the music department rooms, and out on the town. My academic requirements in the bag, I had only a few classes, and none too challenging. The fall was all about the Linn-Mar Marching Lions -- early morning practices in a thick dew, Thursday night rehearsals, BALM (only a select few will understand), contests on the weekends. By the end of the season as the snow flied, I was laying on the floors of my classrooms with severe leg pain as a result of a herniated disc. I spent my 18th birthday in a hospital bed following surgery. And, just a few seconds later (so it seems now), I was attending prom, graduating with the Linn-Mar class of 1988, and heading to college.

When I met my wife Michelle in 1990, it marked the close of the first chapter of my life, and the second began. The pages that contain the first chapter are musty. Until this week, they had been largely neglected for a long time. Reflecting on those pages the last 72 hours has brought laughter, tears, happiness and regret.

Tonight my friend and fellow trombone player John Roling and I will attend Mr. Colton's funeral. It will be one last evening spent in time-traveling mode. When I wake tomorrow, I expect 2006 to appear, with a fresh page made ready in the book of life for recording new memories.

"Here comes the sun, and I say, it's all right."

Some Short Stuff

2006-08-22T09:56:00.000-05:00

I was at the Gazette this morning having my picture taken for the op-ed tribute to Steve Colton. I received confirmation that it will appear in this Thursdays Cedar Rapids Gazette.

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Last week, my alter-ego made an appearance. Michelle and I were teachers for New Life's Vacation Bible School. I was in character as Valentine Village Mayor Vincent Valentino. The kids (and especially their parents) enjoyed my pink dress shirt and tie decorated with hearts. Our message for the week was a good one for kids and adults alike -- God tells us that it is important to not only tell other people we love them, but to show it through our actions (1 John 3:18).

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Speaking of love actions, Michelle and I will celebrate our lucky 13th wedding anniversary in a couple of weeks. It was 16 years ago that we returned for the fall semester at the University of Northern Iowa and went out on our first date -- a trip to the Crossroads Mall to see Pretty Woman.