President Barrack Obama

Today history was made.  No one can ignore the excitement that has surrounded this new President of the United States. Today Barrack Obama has been sworn in as the 44th President. My hope and prayer is that we can come together as a nation and become united once again. 

Here was his Inauguration Speech. 

 

My Prayer for President Obama:

Father, 

I pray that you would guide Mr. Obama. I ask that you would give him wisdom beyond his years. I ask that you would keep him and his family safe. 

Lord will you please use him as a tool to unite the people of this nation. I ask that we would learn to love in a new way. 

Lord, I ask for your blessing on our new President.

Amen

Litigation vs. Listening

Last Saturday my Professor threw out an interesting thought. I have been chewing on it for a few days and I was curious of other peoples thoughts on the subject.  

Today we live in a culture that is so concerned about proving that we are right, that we have little time for actual listening. We become very defensive when someone has an opinion that is different from us. In my opinion, listening is one of our most difficult actions for us to do. We can hear people all day long, but do we listen?

We have become so divided in our culture, that our primary goal seems to be to make ourselves heard. Sometimes our voices need to be heard, we need to speak out. I believe in speaking out against injustice. How do we balance that with listening?

This last political season was a tough one for me. It seemed that every conversation that I was involved in there was something missing from it: Listening. I was just as guilty as anyone else. I was done hearing people talk about this or that, I wanted them to hear my point. It was my turn to tell them why they were wrong. I was certainly on the other side too. I was involved in the litigating processes, not listening conversations. 

I hope that we can come to the realization that we must become united. We must learn to listen. 

Litigation vs. Listening. 

What are your thoughts? What are your experiences with this idea?

I can’t make this stuff up

I was in the library today doing some studying. As I was sitting at my table a gentleman that I know was cruising the magazine section, and we began a conversation. At that point in my time I decided it was time to pack up the books and call it a day. We began walking to the exit, when the goods came out. 

Here is how the conversation went from there:

Guy: Oh, here’s what I was looking for (picking up the Guns & Ammo magazine). I have to get stocked up before Osama Bin Laden gets in office. He is gonna ruin this country. We are going to go down the toilet. 

Me: You think? 

Guy: You kiddin me. He’s a terrorist.

Me: I don’t know about that. He claims to be a believer.

Guy: Thats a joke. Don’t be fooled. He believes in Muslim. Osama Bin Laden. 

Me: I’m not so sure about that. Well see you later.

Guy: Terrorist

This guy says he follows Jesus. I am sad.

Beauty in Action

I am sitting in a starbucks right now, minding my own business when a group of some “old” cyclist come waltzing in. These guys are cool in ever sense of the word cool. Thier ages must range from 55 – 80ish. They all have some sweet sunglasses with little mirrors on them to let them know who is behind them. They all have some pretty LOUD cyclist type clothing on, which includes the very tight pants (which I have recently been wearing on my rides!!). They are joking with eact other and razzing each other, nothing out of the ordinary for a group of buddies.

I heard them having a conversation about politics. This is when the beauty comes into play. Here is how the conversation goes.

Guy in Blue: Hey I wasn’t expecting you to be out of bed yet.

Guy in Yellow: What do you mean?

Guy in Blue: with the elections and all. You must be a little disappointed.

Guy in Yellow: (laughing) yeah that was unfortunate

Guy in Red: HaHa, you must be sulking today.

Guy in Blue: You know I noticed that the green lights were a little greener today, they stayed green longer too. (referencing his new outlook on life because of the results of the election)

Guy in yellow: ha, I am glad you see it that way

Then all the guys go into a laughing and joking mode of what is going to result because of the election. There was zero bitterness, zero “throwing it in the face” to the guy in yellow. They were just a bunch of guys out for a ride on a Thursday morning enjoying a cup of coffee together. It brought a bit of hope to my morning. These guys obviously didn’t agree on everything, but their friendship was much deeper than any political party. I am curious if the fact that since they have been around for a good number of elections, if they have a different perspective than I do about the future, the president, and politics?

Whatever it was that they know, I liked it. It was refreshing. I hope that we can be more like that. I hope that our country can have an attitude of it being ok to disagree, but understanding that relationships are very important. I like old guys. I am going to learn from them. They are walking out as I speak right now. They even put all their chairs back and threw out all their trash.

Thanks old biker guys!!!

President Obama

Our new leader. A new direction. A new voice. 

Yes we can

The Need for Non-partisanship

I don’t know if I can take anymore partisanship. I have been having a really hard time lately with the environment of partisanship. I do not know what to believe anymore, I don’t know who to listen to, I don’t know who has an agenda, and I don’t know the truth. 

I just want to know the facts about certain issues. I want to know the truth about the environment, oil, war, the economy, etc…

I often hear people commenting on some of these issues. I hear Republicans joking about Global Warming, and I hear Democrats outraged about the climate. 

I here Republicans chant “Drill-Baby-Drill”, and I here Dems talking about lowering our oil dependency. 

I here the GOP talking about lowering taxes and increasing wealth, then there is the Dems saying that we need to spread the wealth. 

Let’s get the EVIL terrorists, or War is bad. 

What the crap…

One problem that I have noticed is that someone from the far right gets all their info from far right sources. The left gets their info from the left sources. Who is right? I have heard someone that is an outspoken Republican tell me that the race is “really” close in the last week, and on the same day a Democrat tell me that the race is over. What is that? 

We are in need of honest, non-partisan, real politics. Tell me the truth, not based on your party, but based on true, non-biased facts. 

1 more week then this will be all over. Well, it may be a bit closer to over. I am anticipating both sides giving me the run down as to why or why not their guy was or was not elected. 

What do you think? How do we come together to broaden our views, our causes, our purpose’s, our changing lives, our thinking of the future, our impacting the environment, our…

A new option

Politics!!!! 

Are you ready for the elections to be over with? Are you nervous as to who may be in the White House?

I am ready for all of this to be over. I have decided who I will be voting for. Not ready to tell who though. I am not a Republican, I am not a Democrat, I am not part of the Green Party. I am an independent who loves Jesus. I have my issues with both sides of the aisle. (don’t we all) 

Recently I was reading a book that is a few years old now by a guy named Jim Wallis. Wallis has a fresh voice for Christians on Politics. He does not give in to the old ideology that God is a Republican, and He is not a man that fights for the left either. His book “God’s Politics” has many good insights into politics and Jesus and how their paths collide. 

Here is an excerpt from his book that makes sense to me. He is commenting on how we only have 3 viable options politically right now in our country. He presents an idea of a fourth option, and it makes sense to me. 

“I believe there is a ‘fourth option’ for American politics, which follows from the prophetic religious tradition we have described. It is traditional or conservative on issues of family values, sexual integrity and personal responsibility, while being very progressive, populist, or even radical on issues like poverty and racial justice. It affirms good stewardship of the earth and its resources, supports gender equality, and is more internationally minded than nationalist– looking first to peacemaking and conflict resolution when it come to foreign policy questions. The people it appeals to (many religious, but others not) are very strong on issues like marriage, raising kids, and individual ethics, but without being right-wing, reactionary, or mean-spirited or scapegoating against group of people, such as homosexuals. They can be pro-life, pro-family, and pro-feminist, all at the same time. They think issues or ‘moral character’ are very important, both in a politician’s personal life and in his or her policy choices. Yet they are decidedly pro-poor, for racial reconciliation, critical of purely military solutions, and defenders of the environment. 

‘At the heart of the fourth option is the integral link between personal ethics and social justice. And it appeals to people who refuse to make the choice between the two.”

 

That’s what I am talking about!!!!

What do you think? Would you vote for someone like that?

Gotta love politics

I came across some things that should make all republicans really proud!! (sarcasm emphasized)
Regardless if your a Republican or a Democrat, these should make you question things a little. I don’t have a preference towards either party, but this type of stuff is absolutely ridiculous. 

 

What do you think of these shirts? (that’s right you can actually buy these as t shirts and wear them)

Am I being unfair?

oil

Yet another “conflict” begins because of oil. The Russians are busy throwing around their weight in a much weaker Georgia. Russia is in the process of invading the pro-western nation of Georgia. Well, why are they? OIL, OIL, OIL!!! Russia wants to have control of as much oil as possible, even if it requires war. Bush and Gordon Brown (UK Prime Minister) have both called for Russia to pull their troops out and agree to a cease-fire. We may be at the beginning of a nasty war-filled future. I am not saying that it is going to happen, but I will say that I don’t trust Russia. ( I hope I don’t get poisoned for saying that) 

This is just another example of our need to find alternative-fuel resources. We must begin to get away from oil. We are already in 1 war over oil ( we are, you can’t deny it), and now there is another one on the verge. 

What are your thoughts? Should we just keep chuggin along with the oil? Does Russia scare you?

not on my watch

Have you ever done something and then after you think about it you feel like “maybe I shouldn’t have done that?”. That just happened to me. So my wife and I are going back East (Yonkers!) this summer. She has her family back there, so it is important for us to get back there every year. This year we are planning on taking a mini-vacation while we are there, we are gonna head up to New Hampshire (30 minutes outside Boston). So this is my big opportunity to go to Fenway. For those of you unfamiliar with Fenway, it is the home of the Boston Red Sox, and is one of those places that has an atmosphere that is unmatched. Well, I just bought 2 tickets to a BoSox game in July. I am really excited about the opportunity to go see a game. My seats are super far away, but it’s Fenway!!!!

The problem isn’t going to a baseball game. The problem is that after I purchased the tickets I went up to bed and opened up my reading for the night. I am reading Not On Our Watch, its a book about Darfur and the genocide that is happening over in Sudan. So there I lay, reading about Darfur, attempting to feel the plight of the Sudanese refugees. All this while anxiously awaiting my bosox tickets (which are expensive and hard to get). 

I have an inner conflict going on. I feel shame, conviction, guilt, and uncertainty all at the same time. I’m not sure where the line is. Is it wrong to go to Fenway? Is it wrong to buy unnecessary items when there are so many people around the world without the necessities of life? Where is the line? 

To be completely honest, I feel like sometimes I am a very passionate person with very shallow passions (i.e. Phoenix Suns). I feel like my mouth spouts out great concerns for humanity, but I do very little to help. I am always quick to share with people my ideals about social justice, which is not bad in itself, but slow to sacrifice my own comforts for the same issues. 

I sound like a Pharisee. OUCH