Just Talking It Up Episode 9 is now available in the player on the left sidebar of the blog!

Just Talking It Up number 9! Crash gives a civics lesson on the re-distribution of wealth . . . what wealth? And what about a flat tax? Who gets taxed, why and how much? It’s a meltdown of our system (of sorts), into understandable (yeah, right) increments. Listen in if you want to hear Janet get more confused than she already is . . . oh dear.

Always with fun and frivolity, Janet & Crash are Just Talking It Up on TAXES!

Listening to the pundits complain that the ‘Christian Right’ has jumped ship, that conservatives want to see the Reagan-ites get their  choice (let’s face it, a token) as VP,  talking heads on every channel “Know EXACTLY who McCain should run with . . .” has become a show within itself. I fully expect Monty Hall to walk down the isle, find John McCain and say “Mr. McCain, you may choose between the spineless republicans hiding behind this curtain . . . OR, you may have this independent in this knapsack (not much power there), OR, behind that door is a retired Amway selling Bible thump-er, OR you may choose this box that contains . . . I won’t say her name, but SHE is black, and can whup your lily white ___ on every mental level . . . . and by the way, if you have a hidden weapon in one of your pockets, I’ll give you an aging,  broke, out of work female ‘also ran’ from the other side of the isle for it . . . what’ll it be?”

***By the way Crash, it’s true I would prefer a republican to a democrat for president. Tell me, who/where’s the republican again?***

Amidst all this chaos . . . God loves me . . .

Several days ago I was spending some time with a lawyer friend of mine from college. He and I used to have the most interesting debates about theological issues, political issues, etc. He was one person I knew that would never take my disagreements as a personal attack or some judgement of character. I was also able to act the same with him concerning his ideas, no matter how different from mine. So, as our history of friendship would predict, we began a theological discussion. Notice I said “discussion” and not argument or debate. Too often these days I hear Christians yelling, backbiting, and even cursing EACH OTHER when trying to engage in theological discourse.

The interesting question we had been pondering was this: Where do your thoughts come from? And secondly, regardless of WHERE they come from, when they are sinful in nature, who is at fault of the sin? And lastly, regardless of where they come from and if they are sinful, if you have no control over the initial thought entering your head, are you REALLY at fault of sin?

We discussed the aspects of “taking thoughts captive” and even the fact that since man is born into a sinful nature, then just having the thought pass through his mind would qualify as sin… we came to absolutely no definitive solution one way or the other.

I am really interested… what do you readers and others say? I have been extremely impressed with the discourse on matters similar in nature that have been explored on the site and the show. This topic is now open for discussion! I cannot wait to see what you say!

I’m Just Asking!
Jay

The music industry, but most notably the Gospel Music Industry  lost a most prolific songwriter early Mother’s Day morning. The legendary Dottie Rambo was on her way to a Sunday concert in Texas when her tour bus crashed. The details of the crash are not so important as what she leaves behind. A catalog of remarkable music that will continue touching emotions and hearts forever.

Over the years, I’ve had several events and various happenings that I enjoyed her company, and I can tell you first hand that ‘behind the scenes’, she was a genuine, gracious, gentle ‘Christ-like’ servant, who was also blessed with an effervescent sense of humor. What a bright, bubbly lady she was! I haven’t seen her in several years, but I knew she had burned a comeback path after several years of turmoil, personal & physical troubles. None of us are given more than today, and though I hadn’t seen her in a while, assumed I would have one more opportunity to laugh with her. I’m sure we’ll have a chance again though, just not today. So far, anyway.

Hey Dottie, I forgot to say thank you for “We Shall Behold Him”, “I Will Glory In The Cross”, “Behold The Lamb”,  “I’ve never Been This Homesick Before”, “I Go To The Rock”  and all the other thousands of marks you made on this world before you left yesterday. We’ll miss you for sure.

Amidst all this chaos . . . God loves me . . .

OK, I stole it from Crash, but we’re still faced with this question every day.

Is truth relative or absolute?

Amidst all this chaos . . . God loves me . . .

Today was the day I look forward to all week…grass cutting day.  Yep, you read me right, grass cutting day. In the deep summer when the heat is intense, this day comes at least twice a week. I have a bermuda lawn that I aerate and top dress each spring.   It makes the lawn smooth so I can cut it to about 3/8 inch high like a golf course without scalping it.  I like cutting grass because it provides instant gratification….and it produces beauty and neatness and order.  I can hardly wait until early Sunday morning so I can stand at the edge of the dew covered carpet like lawn as the sun glistens off  the freshly mowed blades and observe my fine tuning of God’s creation.  I learned to enjoy this activity from my Dad.  That’s really the reason I enjoy it so much.  I feel like I am walking with him when I do it…and I hear him saying, “it looks great”.  Great was his favorite word. He was the most positive person I have ever known.   He was indefatigable…he probably didn’t know what the word meant or may have never even heard it spoken, but he surely defined it.  If you look up the word in the dictionary his picture is there.

I learned lawn construction and maintenance from Dad.  I learned it at a time when sodding didn’t exist, a push reel mower was the tool of choice and weed control was archaic compared to today.  Now there are weed specific chemical applications. Trimec for broad leaf weeds, Weed-B-Gone for a wide spectrum of nasty little green things, Snapshot to keep weeds out of shrub areas and Round Up if you want to kill everything that’s green in sight.  In those days Dad would say, “I see dandelions (or crab grass, or clover), let’s go dig ‘em up.  I learned that in the spots where a dog would urinate the dandelions would not grow. Eureka, I have a great thought! Why don’t we……….OK, OK,  so that wasn’t such a great an idea, but you have to give me credit for ingenuity.

Dad played baseball in the yard with my brother and me.  The play was interrupted frequently by Dad bending over and pulling a weed.  He’d give it a sideways twist and a shake to pull it out by the roots so it wouldn’t grow back.   Crabgrass was the most insidious gremlin weed that we had to deal with.   When the heat came after Springtime had turned to sultry Summer, this weed would begin growing and seem to explode almost overnight. It was a daily battle trying to eradicate it during the growing season.  What was unusual was the glee Dad experienced when he pulled crabgrass.  It was almost like by pulling a clump up he was doing something great for mankind. As he got older I would watch him search for this green enemy as he walked to the mailbox to retrieve the mail or the newspaper. He would take a few steps, stop and pull up a weed, straighten up and repeat it 20 or more times on a 200 foot mailbox round trip.   It’s ironic that something that caused him so much consternation brought him so much pleasure.  I guess it’s like sweet and sour pork….or icee hot….or driving on the parkway…or parking on the driveway….it seems to make no sense.  All I know is that he loved doing it.   Guess what?   My grandkids now say “Granddaddy would you please just pitch to me and not pull those weeds?” I guess I’m just like him…and that ain’t so bad, as a matter of fact I’m pretty pleased to be even a little bit like him

Dad has been helping God take care of the baseball field in heaven for over a decade. I really miss him.   Is there crabgrass in heaven?   You thought I’d never get to the point didn’t you?   My belief is yes…crabgrass does exist in heaven.   We know of God’s desire for our happiness there and as much pleasure as my Dad got pulling that stuff up, I know God has some around if only for Daddy.   Pick away Pop…I’ll help you again when I get there.

After a very stressful past few weeks, I finally am done with exams. I am happy to report that I came out every bit as good as was possible. After exams I found myself at a loss. My structure had disappeared, however my responsibilities had not. I took some much needed rest and relaxation time, and in doing so, also found myself complicating my life further!

I know I am speaking almost in “code” here, but that is my intent. The fact is, it doesn’t matter WHAT you are dealing with… when it complicates your life further during a period of time you are supposed to be relaxing, the confusion that sets in creates a personal panic.

I have been trying to figure out exactly HOW, WHY and WHEN I managed to get “lost” in my own life over the past few days. Nothing horrible had happened. I tend to get so wrapped up in my own schedule and routines that crisis sometimes seems to pass me by… until I decide to relax. The past few nights have been spent just simply driving around the city, with the windows rolled down, listening to music and THINKING. Last night, while driving around, I decided to send a text message to my cousin who lives nearby. He was in bed, but agreed to hang out for a bit. I had not intended to explain my current situations or concerns with the hopes of solving anything. In all honesty, I really just wanted to “share” with someone who could laugh along with me at what was going on.

What I got instead, was pure wisdom. My cousin is a good 6 years or so younger than me, yet has a crystal clear understanding of what I was going through. How? I have no idea. We talked for maybe 3 hours. When I left his apartment, not only did I feel relieved and relaxed, but I also had a PLAN for dealing with my troubles. I woke up this morning feeling like I could breathe again. I felt successful again. Most importantly I felt THANKFUL for family who are not just relatives, but friends as well.

Thanks bro. You know who you are. I needed that talk more than you may ever know. I will always be ready to repay the favor.

I’m Just Saying…
Jay

When a 5th grade student is assigned a luminary character to portray in a ‘Living Wax Museum’ as a school project, it’s hardly expected that the character will help in a personal way. I mean let’s face it, most of them are dead guys. . . . Martin Luther King, Jr, Albert Einstein, etc. When our son came home, having drawn the name “Fabian Sanchez” from “Dancing With The Stars”, we were surprised, but glad that he took the assignment seriously. It is near the end of the school year, so it’s more in fun than for ’study’, but being the straight A student that he is, he was ready to take the challenge with gusto.

In preparation for the presentation next week, he started gathering information via the Internet, and found a phone number for Mr. Sanchez’s old place of employment. He called and ended up getting Mrs. Sanchez on the phone! After interviewing her for a few minutes, he asked her to have her husband call him if he had time in his busy schedule (Besides “Dancing With The Stars”, he was last year’s US Mambo Champion, and is quite busy), to which she assured him she would pass the message along. Yesterday afternoon, Mr. Sanchez called and spoke with him for about 15 minutes or so. They chatted away like old buddies.

I’ve never been one to be ’star struck’ by anyone (except Sean Connery, but even men faint when they meet him), but that isn’t usually the case with the average 5th grader. Anyway, we were very grateful that he took the time to return the call of an 11 year old boy who just drew his name out of a hat. Our son wasn’t really a fan before, but will be now, forever. So will we. How could we resist being fans of such a nice guy?

So, muchas gracias Mr. Fabian Sanchez!

Amidst all this chaos . . . God loves me . . .

When you are faced with choosing a person for a particular position, try not to over analyze. This will hold true for me  in this years November election, and my opinion is worth what you’ve paid. It’s just my opinion. There is so much information out there it’s staggering, and frankly it’s beginning to bore me. Not that the information is for my enjoyment to start with, it’s just too overwhelming for me to care about much longer. Sometimes the basics are enough. . . and . . . sometimes weirdness is a bigger marker than we think.

My husband and I were commenting to each other about a rather brilliant ’speaker’ we listened to together. His observation was that the guy seemed (not in an unkind way) “weird”. I responded that he was one of the brightest biblical thinkers of our day. My husband looked at me and said “Yeah, . . . but . . . can he bait a hook?”

While this may or may not have been an original question, I thought it rather sage advice . . . I definitely ‘married up’ . . .

Amidst all this chaos . . . God loves me . . .

How does any society (iron fist-ed dictatorship, captive or free) decide that human life disposal is not much different than pest_management ? The Burmese Regime wasn’t satisfied that not only are 22,000+ dead, but 41,000+ are missing in addition. I guess those numbers were not astronomical enough that they decided to stack up some prisoners bodies as well. Absolutely dumbfounding. I don’t even know where to go with this news.

For the record, I firmly believe that every human life is of inestimable worth. Every unborn child, every drowning adult, every disagreeable old man, every criminal. Inestimable worth.  If we turn a blind eye to just one, we’ve blinded ourselves to all.

“If any question why we died,

Tell them, because our fathers lied.”

Rudyard Kipling

Amidst all this chaos . . . God loves me . . .