Woods & Wooden Blocks

Just a few bits of weekend cuteness...

BG's halo glows along the trail.

Zach wanders off the trail.

That's a snake face.

Photoshop is fun.

"Daddy, it's taller than me!"

Dissenting Opinion

I have now given five hours of my life to Jack Bauer in hopes that he'll be my next favorite superhero. This is going to tick (tock) off some rabid 24 fans I know but...um...I want a little more for my five hour investment.

Actually, Jack is ok. I like Jack. I mean, yeah, he BIT a guy to death in the first episode but c'mon. We've all been there, right? And of course the show is impossibly impossible, but I can suspend reality for a bit. The parts of 24 that really leave me rolling my eyes are not the Jack parts but all the rest. I know I may be nit-picking but here are a few I noticed...

1. The president is negotiating a hostage situation. Really? Does that really happen? And even if it does, do I want that to happen? Don't we want the politician to sign things and leave hostage negotiations to crew-cut, flint-faced, colonels and generals who are just mean as snakes?

2. So not only is the President of the US negotiating a hostage situation, HE GIVES IN! He surrenders an agent of the U.S. military in exchange for a promise of information about terrorist attacks. Puh-lease! The U.S. does not negotiate with terrorists. That's how we roll. And we certainly don't do it with a covert agent who just got out of a Chinese prison, may be mentally unstable, is almost certainly pissed at his country, and has all kinds of secrets just waiting to be shared or tortured out of him! All this president is good for is gritting his teeth, bulging his temples, and speaking in a forceful whisper that makes us think he's really distraught over caving in to terrorists.

3. Have you noticed that Chloe can burrow through 53 million data records, reposition 14 satellites, hack into IBM's website, and investigate a terrorist's family history in, like 12 seconds. But then sometimes she'll be asked to open Microsoft Word and she'll say, "I'm really busy here!" Also, she looks like a Who from Whoville.

4. And speaking of technology, all of the laptops at CTU are Macs. Dumb. I like Macs. But my vote for the most outlandish thing to happen in the first five hours this season is not a nuke going off in LA. It's iBooks booting up in a government office.

Certainly the show is fun to watch, and I know, those are trifling things when there's a world to save out there. But those are the things I notice. I'll give it a few more weeks.

Sanders out.

Contentment

Finally finished Desiring God this morning. I've heard more than one person say that this is a book that every Christian should read. You know what? They were all right. One of the refrains Piper repeats throughout the book is this:

God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him.

It strikes me that my sin is due, in large part, to my unbelief in the sufficiency of Christ. It is Christ whom I have short-sold most. As much as learning submission or fear, maybe it's about learning to have faith in his supremacy and sufficiency. To be content with him in all things at all times. Not to struggle and scheme my way to things that seem satisfying, but to relax in the One who is.

Epiphany

You know all that stuff your pastor told you about how worshiping when you're NOT in church improves your worship when you are? He was right. I experienced it again today. I got to spend a lot of time in the Word today and tonight's service seemed as close to old-school-fall-on-your-face-grateful-for-every-breath worship as I've experienced in a long time.

P.S. Speaking of the Word, here's a verse to kick you in the I'm-a-mature-Christian teeth:

I have not departed from the commands of his lips;
I have treasured the words of his mouth more than my daily bread.
-Job 23:12