WARNING: The video below contains graphic images of people being beaten.


In two days I am supposed to be talking about the book of Job and the reason for suffering in the world.
However, after I watched this I realized I had no idea what suffering was.

"God, strengthen the believers in India. They are showing all of us what it means to love you. Destroy my weakness."

For those of us with questions:

How could there be just one true religion?
How could a good God allow suffering?
Is Christianity a straitjacket?
Why is the church responsible for so much injustice?
How can a loving God send people to Hell?
Science has disproven Christianity, right?
How can you take the Bible literally?

Read "The Reason for God" by Timothy Keller.

Why read?

"Do you know why books such as this are so important? The magic is in what the books say, how they stitch the patches of the universe together into one garment for us. Three things are required for understanding this book's importance.
Number one: quality of information.
Number two: leisure to digest it.
And number three: the right to carry out actions based on what we learn from the interaction of the first two."
-Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury

Materialism.
It is something we all deal with.
Some embrace it with their tightest grip in an effort to bring themselves happiness.
Some do their best to resist it because they know it never will.

I don't want to be materialistic.
I don't want to want.
However, so often I do.
Like this morning when I saw this picture.

The Falcon Bullet will not be hard for me to resist, however, because I will never have the means to embrace it.

Would St. Valentine be proud of me?
Before it was about Hallmark cards, fuzzy feelings, stuffed animals, and boxes of chocolate, it was martyrs dying for commitments and beliefs.
Is my love based on how I feel or what I believe?


Over pizza a few nights ago, some friends and I came up with a few of the best love songs of all time:
She's Got A Way-Billy Joel
Bridge Over Troubled Water-Simon and Garfunkel
If God Made You-Five For Fighting
Back At One-Brian McKnight
Out of My League-Steven Speaks
Can't Get Enough of Your Love, Babe-Barry White
Happy Together-The Turtles
The Long and Winding Road-The Beatles
Two of a Kind, Workin' on a Full House-Garth Brooks
Don't Want to Miss a Thing-Aerosmith
Iris-The Goo Goo Dolls
Oh, It Is Love-Hellogoodbye
How Sweet It Is-James Taylor
Love Story-Taylor Swift

...yep, Taylor made the list.

"Change this something normal into something beautiful."

Nothing like a Jars of Clay record to take me back to those nights of falling asleep listening to my portable CD player through on-ear headphones.
Thank you, Jars of Clay, for escorting me into dreamland all those restless nights.

What does this have to do with the pictures?
I guess nothing, really.
I'm just listening to "If I Left the Zoo" and "The Eleventh Hour" while posting pictures of a bird statue.

I found an old aeronautical map of Georgia today.
So I painted on it.


*Forgot to rotate it. Just do a little head tilt.

Once I put the finishing touches on the kayak, I'm going to need another project.
It's a bookshelf.

Will it hold books?
No idea.

Lobby Day.

We lobbied to show our stance against the commercial sexual exploitation of children.
It is happening in Atlanta.
We have a voice.
It has to stop.

I was tired.
I was nervous.
I was uneducated.
I didn't sign up in time.
"I don't need to be there."
"I'm not a political activist."
I almost didn't go.

I'm so glad I went.
I should be active in politics.
I needed to be there for those being exploited and for myself.
Not signing up in time was just an excuse I made for myself. It didn't matter.
I am more educated.
You always meet wonderful new people when you are uncomfortable.
I am rejuvenated.