Random Thoughts 1/10/06

• Apple released its new computers today with faster processors made by Intel. But that didn't include a new consumer level laptop as I had expected. The professional-level laptop, the MacBook Pro, is $2500 and way out of my range. I was hoping for something in the less ambitious $1000-$1200 range to replace my five-and-a-half year old laptop at work. I guess I'll have to wait a little longer.
• Some folks from our church left for Indonesia today. They'll spend five months there helping the missionaries and doing various things. Jarod and I saw them off at the airport and I pray the Lord keeps them safe.
• I wonder if the Apostle Peter ever got mistaken for a bouncer? I had a repairman come to the church the other day and ask if he could speak to someone from the church. I told him I was "from the church." He looked at me and asked if he could talk to the preacher. I told him I was the preacher. He gave me a look somewhere between startled and disappointed. In my experience, however, the more a guy looks like a preacher, the less he'll act like one when he's "off the clock." The men I most admire, including the Lord, John the Baptist, the Apostle Paul, Rich Mullins, Brother Lawrence, and Socrates were less than impressive at first glance or put people off by not meeting shallow expectations. But upon closer examination you find something stronger and truer than what you first desired. In the end, I'm not here to win people to me personally; I'm here to win them to the truth.
• If the state raises taxes to give more money to schools so that the schools can do more to raise our kids properly, but you don't want the state to raise your children, can you just opt out?
• In my books I do some underlining as I read so that I can find notable passages at a later point. Shannon commented that she liked reading the Chronicles of Narnia after me because she could see which parts resonated with me. But in some books I underline (or make notes in the margins) because I disagree. You should see my copy of Charles Darwin's Orgin of Species! I just finished a book that needed some serious caveats, if not flat-out warnings, and so I wrote a one in the front cover (something about a dungheap). It's not that those books are useless, it's just that they need to be put in their proper context.