Friday, January 23, 2009

Sin Offset

A friend of mine passed on a blog that looks interesting, although I haven't gone through much of it yet. For now, I'm concentrating on this latest one titled, "Obedience cannot be balanced." Like a good writer, he observes something in life that's worthy of ink, or in this case, bytes of data, and puts it down on paper... web space... whatever. Aaron, as he identifies himself, is absolutely right when he points out the ridiculousness of "carbon offset," the idea that you can pay to plant trees to atone for your vehicle's emissions on a pristine--well, lets just say "gently used" planet. He points out the conceptual kinship to the Double Quarter Pounder, Large Onion Rings, & Diet Pepsi phenomenon, where people order the combo thinking it's balanced nutrition. I even agree with his comparison to the Christian walk as not a moderated, balanced commitment, save this one small thing.

While our God is utterly holy and His law requires un-moderated obedience, Aaron does not address how capable any of us are in meeting that required obedience. In this case, none of us can pay the penalty to offset our sins of commission and omission. There is no form of payment we can offer. Quite seriously, the payment required life blood of the unblemished, sinless man, found only in Jesus Christ. It is by that life blood that grace is offered to Aaron, to you and to me. This grace is not carbon offset or balanced nutrition in the sense that we have both sinned and recovered from it. While we were still foundering and flailing about in our sins, Christ died for us. We had no hope without Him. While some are off to save us from carbon emissions and others want to charge us to lose 10 vanity pounds of water weight, the most serious work has already been done. All we have to do it take it and believe it, and then trust that His love that started at the cross will keep changing us until we see Him in His unequalled glory.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

The Nature of American Politics

My children were taking advantage of the free lessons offered by the government today in democracy and peaceful transition of power. At one point before the oath of office, the TV showed Obama leaving a room with an inscrutable look on his face.

My 5 year-old daughter piped up, "Show me your teeth, Obama!"

I think she's figured it all out.

Before you think me too cynical, I believe that God governs the affairs of men and that no man comes to power without God's approval. We need to watch and pray.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Flying A 90-ton Wide-Body Onto the Hudson

I've always had a keen interest in aviation. It's just part of that drive that some guys seem to have to love big, noisy things that go fast. I have been watching with a lot of amazement the tale of the US Air flight that ditched in the Hudson River last week. Capt. Chesley B. Sullenberger III (Sully) has been credited with a perfect ditch that to my mind is the only example of a large-body aircraft to do so. Planes like that are designed to be able to fly on just one engine if the other is destroyed. They are able to "trim out" the yaw (sideways push) of flying on just one engine. It's kind of like driving straight with your steering wheel cranked all the way in one direction. You can make it, but it takes a lot of skill to work the controls.

In this case, however, it was two engines at once. Experts commenting on the crash say that it seems to be the result of a bird strike, where birds get sucked into the engine and their bodies cause extensive damage to the engine. Usually, the damage is limited to just one engine. However, given a large flock of birds, any aircraft with two engines is vulnerable. LaGuardia has had problems with birds taking up residence near the airport, so much so that in the past, they have taken unique steps to run off populations. It's not unlikely that it was a bird strike.

So what happens when both engines develop cases of duck flambe? You have a 180,000-pound glider on your hands, and those wings just aren't going to keep it in the air for long. It's too heavy to stay up there without thousands of pounds of active thrust. That Sully got the plane lined up on the river, that he didn't meet any boat traffic making a crossing, that he kept the plane upright, that it didn't break up or even split in two, these are all miracles! Had the rear exits been opened after they landed, had they not been in sight of ferry boats that could help evacuate, had they panicked, people would have died. Not one died. That is the culmination of not one miracle but a sequence of miracles. I believe angels were involved in keeping those people safe. Thank God.

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

Kid Drives To School After Driving in Video Game

Oopsie. This should make parents think about where they put their keys. A six year-old kid drives on a highway to get to school to make PE and breakfast. I guess breakfast is the most important meal of the day.

One question: were the parents charged with Child Endangerment for letting him have access to the car or for letting him play Grand Theft Auto? This is a game where you can ruthlessly gun down innocent people and get away with it, where you regain player health by having sessions with prostitutes, where you live as a member of an underworld crime syndicate loaded with racism, corruption, and rampant murder. Letting him play should be considered reckless child endangerment. I avoid judging situations where I don't know the whole story, and the media never tells the whole story. On the other hand, I can't think of a case where a young child who is learning to spell "house" and "car" should ever be allowed to play GTA.

The fact that he drove to school thinking it was just like the video games shows us yet again that kids do have trouble sometimes distinguishing between games and reality. Parents must help their kids realize that life doesn't have a reset button and if you die, you don't come back by hitting "Continue." His dad needs to think these things over while he waits for bail and sees the real, living examples of thugs living the GTA life.

Homeschooling Grows

USA Today, the national McNewspaper, churned out an article on Monday saying simply, Home Schooling Grows. The article has inspired just under 1,000 comments from registered users of the USA Today site.

What they should have said is that homeschooling is maturing and diversifying. People are starting to homeschool for more reasons than simply the desire to teach their kids about God. Instead, people are finding that homeschooling allows their children to learn at their own pace instead of in lock-step with the class. They're finding that their kids don't have to do homework or spend 8 hours locked away in apublic school when they can be home with their families, learning what they need with a lower time investment and a big improvement in quality of life.

Homeschooling is growing and diversifying and for all the right reasons.

Sunday, January 4, 2009

How Can You Sleep At Night?

It's 3 a.m. and this hour marks the 24th straight that I've been awake. Many disabled people have sleep disorders. For a select few, that's where it all starts. Whether it's apnea, snoring, insomnia or night terrors, they're unable to get the nominal dose of brainwave patterns we call sleep, and its resulting neurological and psychological impact is enough to keep them from living the life they desire. It is yet another one of those invisible illnesses people don't realize are so very common.

For me, irregular and unpredictable sleep patterns are common to folks with Fibromyalgia. It's just part of the territory, supposedly. It tends to rip me out of people's daily lives. Going for breakfast at 10 p.m. doesn't seem to fit most people's schedules. I've been working with my doctors about getting regular sleep, but sleep doesn't come in a bottle, at least not for long with me. I'll continue to battle for the Z's, though. When I can get regular sleep, it takes the edge off a lot of other symptoms I deal with.

Sleeping normally, or as close to normal as possible, is a vital part of being human. It's one of the big four (Eat Sleep Breathe Poop) that we all do from day one. Stop any one of those and you're going to run into trouble sooner or later. There have been plenty of studies on how sleep relates to health, just like drinking enough water. If you're not sleeping, don't just give up on it. Do everything you can to get the regular sleep patterns you know you need.

Well, isn't this a shock? I fell asleep in the middle of writing this! If you nodded off too, great job!

Friday, January 2, 2009

Your Baby Can Read

One of the more common infomercials out there right now is "Your Baby Can Read." It's pretty impressive. The 18 month-olds through 4 year-old learn to read using whole word recognition. The parents seem impressed as well. Still, I've got to wonder if any of those parents realize that they're homeschoolers.

I would link to their site, but when I tried to navigate away from the site, a deceptive pop-up tried to keep me on their site. I never link to sites like that.

Thursday, January 1, 2009

Be It Resolved?

I don't do resolutions, normally. I don't trust myself with them. I'd rather not get disappointed, confused, upset or depressed when somehow it just doesn't work out. Some things I just don't have control over. But this one I do.

In 2009, I resolve to become as comfortable as I can with my disability and to allow myself the grace to be who I am.

There. I said it. It's out there. Now it's time to live it.