Problems are for Solving

Last night was our annual celebration that we call The Night of the Burning Plum. There is history behind this (you can read more here), and this is our fourth celebration of the night.

We had a big ham, horseradish spiced mashed potatoes and a raspberry/walnut/gorganzola salad with a vinegrette. It were all *delicious*. Accompanying dinner was a mixture of plum wine and homemade sparkling mead. Also quite tasty.

For dessert we had our traditional Flaming Plums and Cherries served over vanilla ice cream and 8 year old Plum Brandy. It was lovely. Ralph brought some cream Sherry from the winery near where many of used to live in Pennsylvania which was also quite tasty.

After dessert and conversation we adjourned into the newly painted Plum Living Room for our tradition of telling stories. The children told many stories, including one from Toby that had Cthulu, Agent X, and Dr. Frankenstein. Their story telling has vastly improved over the four years and I’m glad for this tradition. Seth told his usual three stories, and we all shared in a lovely time (you can read Gabrielle’s story from last night here).

After all this we did a little cleaning up and then most went to bed and a few of us wandered down to Seth & Crystal’s for some Jungle Speed (which I won more times than I usually do against Seth and Ralph!).

Of the family traditions we’ve begun since our family was founded, this is by far my favorite. Next year, the 5th annual Night of the Burning Plum promises to be even better. I’m already starting to think of changes to the evening (minor, improving changes!) in preparation.

All in all, another lovely night, and a grand annual celebration of friendship. Hopefully those who couldn’t make it this year will be available in 2009.

This morning, on my way home from the gym, I plan to stop and vote. Later tonight someone on the news will tell us one of three things, which most of you have probably heard by the time you read this. Either John McCain or Barack Obama will be elected to serve a first term beginning in January, or the election (for whatever reason) will not be over and we will have to wait to find out who will sit in the White House from January, 2009 through January 2013.

Every four years many Christians seem to forget that what matters most is not who is in the White House, but Who is on the throne. We will have a president, one way or another. More importantly, we have a King. His Name is Jesus.

Daniel 2:20-21, says:

“Daniel answered and said, ‘Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever to whom belong wisdom and might. He changes times and seasons, he removes kings and sets up kings; He gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding;”

Most of us understand that Daniel was living in exile when he spoke these words. As we approach this year’s election many of us may hearken back to the 2000 presidential election. The election that didn’t seem to end.

As I write this I do not know who will be elected president. I don’t know whether he will prove to, in hindsight, be a good man or an evil man. But I do know, as Daniel did, that God alone removes kings and sets up kings.

When Daniel said this, he may have hearkened back himself to Isaiah’s words, when God calls the pagan king Nebuchadnezzar His servant. Daniel had no way of knowing when he said these words that Nebuchadnezzar would become a believer. But he did know what you and I can know-that God sets up kings.

We need not fear what lies ahead-because God knows and has promised that that gates of Hades will not prevail against His Church. We can bless the Name of God for ever and ever because He alone sets up kings. He alone gives wisdom to the wise and knowledge to those who have understanding. And He has promised to care for us.

Tomorrow morning many Christians may be fretting over the election of Barack Obama. The Republicans may lose even more ground in the Senate. No one expects them to even make up ground in the House of Representatives. But no matter who is ruling inside the DC beltway-Jesus rules from Heaven without fail.

Psalm 2 says that kings rage against the Messiah-but that the One in the Heavens laughs at them. He knows. He knows that they must stand on His lap to slap Him in the face. He knows that they are not mighty-and that they will fall at His command.

In 1997 I was diagnosed with adult onset asthma. Several times over the past years I have come close to death because I could not bring that next breath into my lungs. I have lived for years now with the ever present awareness that God holds every breath that we take-both for me and you.

Sparrows don’t fall to the ground without God’s knowledge. God knows when we sit down and rise up. He knows the words we speak before they are on our tongues. God’s thoughts for each of us outnumber the sand! Do we need to fear what man can do to us?

Psalm 118:6-9-”The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me? The LORD is for me among those who help me; Therefore I will look with satisfaction on those who hate me. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in man. It is better to take refuge in the LORD than to trust in princes.”

Is our trust in princes? May it never be! Our help comes from the Lord on high-and He has not ceased to sit upon His throne for one nano second since He ascended on high almost 2000 years ago.

Whether our President be John McCain or Barack Obama-Jesus is our King. Let us live today and every day trusting in Him alone. Let us worship Him with every breath that is in us and glory in His providence every moment.

“Give thanks to the LORD, for He is good. For His lovingkindness is everlasting.” (Ps. 118:29)

Nothing has changed with Theresa since the last update. Good news today, though, is that the dishwasher is finally working again, with a new pump! Clean dishes all around. Raise a glass and toast the dishwasher repairman.

The other day when I was searching around for something to be thankful for I got caught up on my travel numbers. September was the second month this year where I didn’t travel at all. And in August I came home from a business trip and had some small trips, including Toby’s birthday trip but put very few miles on.

Through September 30th I am at about 12,000 miles. That’s compared to just over 30,000 miles this time last year. 2,000 fewer miles per month. That’s something to be very thankful for as I enter a season of more travel over the last quarter. And a good deal of the travel this year has been personal and non-emergency.

I am thankful to God for the comparative rest from last year’s heavy travels.

I’ve been writing a lot about abortion and the theme could be called: “babies are people too.”

And yesterday morning we found out that there’s a little people growing inside TC. Best guess is due date mid-May next year.

Wahoo! Praise God for this blessing. And please be praying for TC and our little one as he grows.

Last night’s supper included salad made with romaine lettuce, fresh diced tomatoes (from a garden of a friend), feta cheese and black olives. Oh, and topped with homemade creamy garlic and dill dressing made by Raquel.

I had four helpings of salad. Usually I pass on it.

Fresh vegetables make a huge difference, and I’m glad to have friends who share their gardening surplus with us. We’ve not been home at the right times and ambitious enough to get veggies of our own, but have enjoyed greatly the generosity of others in that.

Mmmm. Fresh tomatoes.

Oh and there’s fresh salsa in the fridge too. Mmmm.

I’m in the car (Seth is driving) on the way home from Indianapolis. I have some thoughts on the whole experience, but I probably won’t get any flesh on them, at least in written form, anytime soon. Here are some extremely brief (possibly overly simplified) reflections from my week, in no particular order:

1. If I come again I want to figure out a way to bring more of my family, in particular my wife and oldest son. My wife because I have missed her horribly (and she, me) and three nights is just a long time to be away when I’m taking vacation. My oldest son because he missed his brother terribly and would have loved to share the experience. This, however, was Toby’s 10 year old trip and as it ought to be was just him and me.
2. I got some good time to talk with Toby and get to know him a little better as he’s growing. And I’m looking forward to our friendship growing as I pursue things with him that he takes interest in.
3. Everyone in the known universe is a geek. Some people are geeks about sports (quoting batting averages, etc.), some about fast engines, some about games, some about music, ad infinitum. And among different types of geeks there are geek specialties. And this week I got to see many of the sub-specialties of gamer geeks. And some of them were quite interesting, others disturbing.
4. While I consider myself to be normal (don’t we all) I did not feel as out of place among gamers as I thought I would. Certainly there were times when I thought, “do I really belong here?” but most of the time I thought “except for some morality issues that separate us, Toby is a lot like people here.” And since I like hanging out with Toby and Seth and Ralph, there was no feeling of non-belonging despite various differences.
5. I like playing games. I also like games to keep moving. I found myself losing patience with the slowness of moving by our opponents in the massive heroscape scenario we took part in this week. (See my FB account for some pretty cool (and some awfully taken) pictures of the event. Some of this is my need for more patience, and some of it is my desire to have things moving, and some of it is my lack of desire (possibly to a sinful extent) to stop and enjoy the moment when the next moment is more attractive to me.
6. Gamers need Jesus. I overheard just enough conversations sitting around while Toby talked with the homestead to realize that there are hurting, self-centered people just like me that just happen to be immsersed in stuff that I am not. And in that context, Christians need to engage this subset of people who need Jesus just as we need to engage the stockbrokers who need Jesus and the street people who need Jesus and the people on our street who need Jesus.

I’m sure I”m forgetting something, but if I didn’t write this down right away I’m sure I’d forget it. I’ll close the post with a nice picture of Toby doing what Toby does well–concentrating on a visually pleasing art project. I’m thankful for this time with him.

Health: Better Safe Than Sorry - US News and World Report
Andrew Stout’s farm in Carnation, Wash., is one of the most successful small organic farms in the country. Each week, Full Circle Farm delivers fresh lettuce, green peas, spring garlic, and spinach to 17 farmers’ markets in the Seattle area, as well as to dozens of restaurants and retailers, including Whole Foods Market. Some 2,400 boxes of produce a week go out to families who have bought a share in the farm’s riches. His customers are counting on getting freshness and taste-and also on Stout’s care when it comes to hygiene. “Bacteria exists everywhere,” he says. So he keeps the manure pile away from the packing shed, tests the water used to irrigate and wash vegetables, and keeps an eye on his workers to be sure they wash their hands. “I’m a food provider,” he says. “You want to do the absolute best that you can.”

The rapidly growing passion for locally grown produce from farmers like Stout and his wife, Wendy Munroe, is one sign of just how nervous Americans have become about the state of food on their plate.

Holy Cow! Whole Foods Linked to E. coli Outbreak - The Checkout
Whole Foods initiated the recall after Massachusetts health officials investigating a cluster of E. coli illnesses discovered all seven victims had bought meat at Whole Foods. The chain pulled ground beef from some of its stores on Wednesday. The Nebraska Beef recall was announced late Friday night.

The first article I linked to above is one I read about a year ago while in Arizona visiting my parents, the second is one I saw on my Google homepage this morning.

Food. It’s the stuff we take in that God has designed to give us energy, life, health, and enjoyment. Certainly God could have designed a “more efficient” way for us to get our calories in, but food was given for enjoyment, for feasting. And we miss it when we fast–turning us back to Him.

But food lately has become a knotty issue, as these two articles point out. Food can be dangerous. It can give death almost as easily as it brings life, because it can carry with it many dangerous things that exist in our world since the fall. Most people in our nation look for the FDA and the USDA to guard the quality and safety of the food supply. But can they? I mean, short of inspecting every single food item before it hits your grocery store, is that even possible? And what would that do to the tax cost of food? And is it even their job?

The first article talks about a growing movement of buying food that is local. Food that you know where it came from. Certainly that doesn’t eliminate safety concerns, but doesn’t it make them smaller than a federal agency ever could? In the old days people would buy meat from a butcher that they knew, who bought the meat directly from a farmer that they probably knew as well. The grocer? He carried vegetables and such from local farmers also. And so on.

Do you know where your food comes from? Have you ever asked they guy at the meat counter where those chickens were raised and what they were fed? He probably doesn’t know. (As an aside, I have had conversations with people at both Alwan and Sons and Pottstown Deli locally and I got an answer, and usually it was someplace I could find out more about if I wanted to.)

If you don’t know where your food comes from, you are at risk. Maybe not huge risk, but since the largest organic food vendor (Whole Foods Market) in the United States just had meat issues, I don’t think you can even say that buying organic makes you safer.

But if you grow your own veggies or get them from a friend or neighbor or a local farmer–they’re likely to be safer, and at least you can ask more questions about what they grew near, what fertilizer was used, etc. And if you take responsibility for your consumption purchases, you will always be better off in the long run, and safer. We buy most of our meat directly from local farmers and prefer veggies from the same, when we can get them. (Here’s a link to a video of a chicken plucker that we got to help with, and help a farmer, who gave us a sizeable chicken for our work).

And you just might help a local business thrive instead of a big box.

So if you don’t know where your food came from, think about it, and consider changing that. If you do–good job!

I’m sure I’ll have more to write on this later, but be careful what you eat, especially if you have no idea where it’s been.

Today is Theresa’s birthday. The Big 34. Yep. I married a younger woman. She wasn’t even 21 yet when we got married.

Theresa loves to learn. She devours books about topics that would bore the socks off me. And then she tells me about what she read and makes it interesting. Topics like the management of waste water for cities and soil conservation. I’m serious.

And today I am very thankful and glad to be married. And very thankful that after 13+ years she continues to put up with me.

Happy Birthday, my love. You continue to be my best friend and the one I most look forward to coming home to. Thank you for these years of marriage and for giving our children your love for learning new things. May you never cease to love to learn, and may we continue in our endeavors to learn to love.

Post 2 in the series. Post 1 here.

Here’s the preamble again:

Congress of the United States begun and held at the City of New-York, on Wednesday the fourth of March, one thousand seven hundred and eighty nine. THE Conventions of a number of the States, having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best ensure the beneficent ends of its institution. RESOLVED by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, two thirds of both Houses concurring, that the following Articles be proposed to the Legislatures of the several States, as amendments to the Constitution of the United States, all, or any of which Articles, when ratified by three fourths of the said Legislatures, to be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of the said Constitution; viz. ARTICLES in addition to, and Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the Legislatures of the several States, pursuant to the fifth Article of the original Constitution.

The Bill of Rights limits Congress, at least ostensibly. It limits the ability of Congress to legally attack what the founders believed were rights given by God. Only Congress was empowered by the Constitution to make laws, and so by extension the Bill of Rights limits the entire Federal Government. I believe the intention was to limit all levels of the sphere of the state, but that isn’t something I’m going to try to prove here.

The main point is this: The Bill of Rights does not grant rights. It does NOT. It is a legal guarantee of the government’s lack of authority to trump the rights that are enumerated here. The rights do not come from the government. They come from God. (See my review of and read Bastiat’s The Law
here.) They exist whether or not the government believe they exist, and they exist whether or not the government recognizes they exist. That, at least, is what the founding fathers believed. And this document was adopted, “in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers.” The Bill of Rights was a protection against the United States government growing into a tyrannical monstrosity. And the following posts will discuss in what ways it has been misinterpreted in order to allow just that tyranny it was designed to protect against.