Liar, Liar, Pants on fire (and, eventually, more than that…!)

C’mon, ‘fess up ‘cuz we’ve all done it.  Telling that little white lie or withholding just a piece of the story to make ourselves look better.  Personally, I also tend toward mild exaggeration, but I suspect all of us at some point in our lives (except One) have had what my brother-in-law calls a “flexible sense of integrity”.   Of course, the universality of it doesn’t excuse us, nor does the humor.  It may help our cause, however, to recognize where all this untruthfulness boils up from…

Enter good King Hezekiah, good being a nuanced word, because he also had his moments.  Nonetheless, he led

Mythos: An Interview With Robert Lambert Jones III

Admittedly….I’m proud of him.

noblethemes

Robert Lambert Jones III is a college biology professor who earned his Ph. D. in Molecular Biology from Indiana University. He is married and has three grown daughters, a granddaughter, and a dog named Buckley. He enjoys hiking, cycling, reading, watching movies, playing his electric bass, and (of course) writing. Robert Jones blogs weekly at Pneumythology.

• When and how did you first become interested in mythology? Tell us something about your early love for this grand subject

It might have started with a childhood love of monsters, especially dinosaurs. I also remember my parents owning an encyclopedia called The Book of Knowledge. That little tidbit of information might date me, but in that book I read an abridged account of Beowulf’s battle with Grendel. In high school English class, we read excerpts from The Iliad and The Odyssey which also fascinated me. These were intrinsic processes, and I can’t…

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The Voice Not Easily Heard

Ed is working on his advanced degree while he and his wife are raising two small children.  I can relate, since I helped “push my husband through” his Ph.D. process with three kids in tow.  (When the very precious piece of paper arrived in the mail, I told Bob that this was “our” diploma!)

Ed is also dealing with a recently diagnosed genetic blood disorder that has thrown his health, as well as his family’s bank account, into a bit of turbulent waters.  (I can say this because it’s on his blog.) But in spite of this, and most importantly, Ed is a man of faith in the God of wonders, Who is all good, all wise, and all powerful.  Thank you, Ed, for the privilege  of posting your work!  (As always, here’s the disclaimer.)

THE VOICE NOT EASILY HEARD

written by Edmond Sanganyado

*inspired by Robert Frost’s Road Not Taken

 

Two voices whispered in a dark room

One many and the other only just solo

One a rustling mopane leaf in autumn

One a thousand and one echoes of wonder

I listened intently, but could only hear one

 

Of many, I heed with all my might

For one was too quiet in this lonely night

As the stars, the loud echoes became light

Illuminating my path, it all seemed right

I followed the snarly breeze like a kite

 

I looked far ahead as I followed the train

Not only I, but billions trailed the many

No pain, no rain, all gain, but then, no brain

Only a promise of a dance, laughter and joy

Because it was a call to a never-ending party

 

And that night both voices equally spoke

The scattered letters meant the same, Come

Indeed, I listened to the other, not the first

The second seems arose from my heart’s rest

And that communion was too luring for jest

 

One day, I will recall with bouts of shame

In the distant past, a decision once stood

Two voices once called me from the dark, but I

Heed the one with a bait of quick happiness

Yet, the still small voice never stopped calling

–Let your life of faith transform society

 

Used with permission.  Drop over to Ed’s blog at : http://gracemusing.com

True freedom

“In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men.”

John1:4

New American Standard Bible (NASB)Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation

My beautiful balloon!

I was turning 50, and one day while out on my patio I looked up to see one of those beautiful hot air balloons floating freely across my field of vision.  It was probably the unmistakable sound of the heated air being released up into the balloon that got my attention.  So glad I did, because that’s when I decided, now was the year!

I had wanted to go on a free float for a long time, just never even considered spending the money, you know, braces for the kids, college, saving for retirement, you name it.  After all, delayed gratification is a hallmark of adulthood, right?

Nuts to that.  I was turning the big 5-0, and I’m heading into the sky!

Granted, a free float over Parsons, Kansas is not exactly the

Divinely illogical

If P, then Q, unless of course you are Aristotle’s universal affirmative, at which point all of your P’s are also Q’s, unless only some P’s are Q’s, and this mustn’t be confused with an introduction that permits us to infer a biconditionality from a pair of closed subproofs, one of which assumes P and deduces Q, the other of which assumes Q and deduces P.*   Not to be outdone by the truth value of the presupposition of sentence S.  (Where’d that letter come from?) That is, unless you have a Boolean Connective…..

I wish I had at least audited Dr. Rouintree’s logic class.

Okay, let’s bring it down more to my level:

If I go to Walmart for groceries and come home with a puppy from the nice woman in the parking lot, and don’t tell my husband, THEN….

If I get a puppy from the nice woman in the Walmart parking lot, and tell my husband, THEN….but that

IN other words….

“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed.”

Tyndale House Publishers Inc (2008-06-01). The One Year Bible NLT (One Year Bible: Nlt Book 2)

Mediocrity

Meet my newest bloggin’ buddy, Julie, at  https://cookiecrumbstoliveby.wordpress.com  Her piece on our current times and circumstances makes total sense, not just globally, but personally, in my every day-to-day encounters.  As a Christian, I’m supposed to be part of a counter-culture, not merely a sub-culture.  But sometimes it’s just so much easier (can you hear my whining?) to wallow in….

 

Mediocrity 

Do not hide yourself behind mediocrity,
while basking in the average of mundane.
Do not opt for the middle of the road while choosing
neither high nor low, fast nor slow.
Do not settle on simply blending in
nor being like all the rest…
For climbing the ladder, rung by rung, will lead you neither up nor down.

Dare rather to choose your side refusing to straddle the fence
Roll up your sleeves and sweat if you must, as the outcome is now dire
Be not afraid to make a stand for Darkness has chosen his
Time is no longer on your side with the stage having long been set
It’s life or death for you my friend yet ignore it if you so chose
For mediocrity loves a crowd for indifference is no stranger…

Used by permission from: https://cookiecrumbstoliveby.wordpress.com

Find me on page 12

Billy Graham was probably one of the first evangelists to use that new social media known as television.   I remember watching with a certain sense of awe as hundreds of people left their seats in a huge auditorium, making their way to the stage upon Dr. Graham’s invitation to give their lives over to Jesus Christ, as ‘Just As I Am’ was playing in the background.  Even watching on TV, it was seriously impressive.

Impact: to influence, alter the course of something (or more importantly, someone.)  Yup, that pretty well describes Billy Graham’s ministry.  Funny to think that he touched more lives during his lifetime than Jesus did during His own.  And yet, who had the most impact?

I remember hearing Dr. Graham say (and I paraphrase) that once in Heaven, he expected to pick up the angelic

Don’t shoot the messenger!

Jeremiah, the “prophet of doom” in the Old Testament, had a personal secretary named Baruch.  I don’t know if Baruch was an actual student of Jeremiah’s, or if he had just unwittingly fallen into the position for lack of anything better to do, considering the circumstances and all. 

Or maybe he was looking for adventure.  If that’s the case, he got a bit more than he bargained for.

To begin with, his boss was not a popular fellow.  Regardless, writing down everything