Random Thoughts 3/17/07

• I received a letter notifying me that I was "selected" to be in the upcoming edition of Who's Who in Religion. Yeah, right – Billy Graham, Rick Warren, and me. Solicitations like this are usually meant to appeal to your vanity and ego and get you to buy one of their yearbooks. No thanks; it would be just the kind of thing I was talking about with personality-driven ministries, where the celebrity of the preacher is a major facet in the ministry. In my mind if you can't be content with toiling in anonymity then you might want to re-examine your motives.
• Tanner's teeth are still loose. We persuaded him to use mouth wash to clean that nasty little mouth and I asked him to avoid hard and chewy foods for now. He asked this morning if we were going to pull his teeth out (like Brennan's recent loose tooth) but we're going to give those teeth a chance to firm up if they will. The poor guy.
• 1,546 years ago a Christian missionary died after thirty years of preaching to drunken Irishmen. A moment of silence please…
  
• The family is back on their collective feet but I'm still several days behind them. I was fine for almost a week while everybody else was ill but now I'm under the weather while Shannon and the boys are fine. Jay-rod asked me this afternoon, "Are you sure you're going to be okay for Sunday?" Yeah, I think so. I'm just worn down and I'm not going to miss church just because I feel fatigued.
• Happy St. Patrick's Day. I heard some bars opened at 6:00am this morning. You've. Got. To. Be. Kidding. Can you even get a free cab ride home before noon? I traditionally wear something orange on St. Patrick's Day for the promotion of Biblical Protestantism and, of course, to be contrary. I don't actually support the Orangemen or the Orange Order (an Irish Protestant organization that is historically anti-Catholic) but anything that can prompt a conversation on church history is good.