Browsing Category

Random Thoughts

Election Day

It’s election day. This is a day that is filled with our best, our brightest, our greatest. It is a time of reflecting on our past, being honest about our present, and longing for a better future. It should be a time when our country comes together and celebrates the miracle of freedom.

Unfortunately, it is also the day that we as flawed citizens choose our flawed leaders. It is the day that we as people of faith feel torn between allegiances. Sometimes our personal viewpoints do not align with our spiritual aspirations, which is part of our flawed existence. …

Random Thoughts,

Flying Hobbits

Anybody who knows me will expect that sooner or later The Hobbit will show up on my list of 25 Books That Influenced My Life. And it will, eventually, as the numbers rise over the months ahead. Until that time comes, this flight safety briefing from Air New Zealand will satisfy Tolkien fans. Trust me, you’ll smile more in the five minutes it takes to watch this video than you will for the rest of the day. You’ll also want to get on a plane and fly to New Zealand.

Oh, and if you subscribe to this blog via …

Random Thoughts,

Fifty Worst Cars

Yesterday I posted the Fifty Best Cars, so it seemed fair to post the exact opposite today. I think the list is fairly good but has one major flaw: the #2 car was not nearly as bad as they say. Of course, to be fair, I owned one!

So what do you think? A good list? What’s missing? What should be off the list? Click the photo below to see the list.…

Random Thoughts,

Fifty Best Cars

Came across this article and figured it was an appropriate post for a blog titled Junkyard Wisdom. So what do you think? A good list? What’s missing, or what should not be on it? How many have you owned? Click the photo of the car below to see the list.…

Apocryphal, Random Thoughts,

Baseball and the Giants

I posted this back in 2010 just before the SF Giants won the World Series. Seemed appropriate to post it again considering that they won again! Woohoo!!! So here it is:
—-
It was a beautiful summer Sunday. My father had promised that we would go to Candlestick and watch the Giants play, my first memory of seeing a live professional game. It was probably 1965, and I was perhaps 6-years old, so my memory of details could easily be mistaken. But I think they were playing the Dodgers that day. Or at least I want to believe that.

To …

Random Thoughts,

Two Types of Prayer

Been awhile since I wrote anything, so wanted to share a simple insight into prayer.

There are many types of prayer — far too many to list here. But I want to focus on two approaches that seem common … and sometimes misused.

1) The prayer time that is a sanctuary. It’s a place to retreat and disengage from the world. Prayer becomes a sanctuary, a place to avoid pain, a place to find peace, a place to heal. It’s the place to go when life seems confusing. Unfortunately, the downside of this is that it can also become a …

Random Thoughts,

Fighting God

Came across this in Celtic Daily Prayer today and thought I’d share it. Strikes me as the kind of insight we could all use, especially when dealing with hardship. We want to turn those moments into “spiritual warfare” issues all too fast sometimes.

“When things seem really bad, we might need to hesitate before assuming it’s against us or out to get us. As Gamaliel pointed out, we need to be careful just in case it’s God we’d be fighting in rejecting it.”

…

Random Thoughts,

Disagreements

A few weeks ago I had dinner with friends and we ended up talking politics. Though we were not really that far apart in our viewpoints, the disagreements were enough to create a true debate. These were good friends, so there was plenty of laughter and teasing. Accusations went back and forth but they were always done with a smile. Still, there were serious disagreements about policies and perspectives.

That’s going to happen a lot during this election season. Good people with informed viewpoints see things differently. That’s life. And that’s a democracy, thank God.

Of course, it can go …