Some thoughts from today

I have discovered that I don't want China to change. I know that I'm too late. That much has changed already and that more change is inevitable. I walk around and I see girls holding hands with their girlfriends in such an innocent expression of friendship. It's totally unacceptable in America and yet I treasure it. I see the butt of a waddling toddler hanging out of his split pants and it brings me uncontrollable amusement every time. Already you can see the old blending with the new. An old man carries a basket of vegetables on his back as he is passed by honking taxis and motorcycles. The vegetable market that is spread out on blankets by my front door every morning is only a block away from a supermarket where all their goods and more can be found. I love the heartfelt hospitality of the Chinese people. They are unequaled in their efforts to make you feel welcome. As much as it grosses some people out, I appreciate that it's acceptable to spit in public. In a way, it brings a sense of freedom. There are less rules about many things, and many more about others. In America you could never ride three people to a motorcycle. But that sure is a way to LIVE! I think if all the world were like China I should hate it. But the beauty lies in the diversity. YHWH gave us so much to see and do that we can never experience it all, and that is what is so wonderful about trying new things and knowing that just around the corner is something even more incredible.

Paul was a wise man

But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.
It is written: "I believed; therefore I have spoken." Sine we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak.
Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.
For HIS love compels us, because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again. So from now on we regard no one from a worldly point of view. Though we once regarded HIM in this way, we do so no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in HIM, there is a new creation: The old has gone, the new has come! All this is from HIM, who reconciled us to himself through his Son and gave us the job of reconciliation. We are therefore His ambassadors, as though He were making his appeal through us. We implore you on His behalf: Be reconciled to Him.

WHY?

Article about the $700 billion bailout plan:

"Republicans were also working to eliminate a provision sought by Senate Democrats that would direct 20 percent of any profits from the plan to help create affordable housing. The Republicans want all profits returned to the Treasury."

WHY? WHY? Someone please give a good reason.

I love that the Chinese, Australian, and Germans I talk to know more about American politics that most of the Americans. Myself included. And when I say I love it, that's not exactly what I mean. But I was riding in a taxi yesterday and I heard President Bush on the radio, that kind of weirded me out.

Iraq

So I'm really glad no one reads this because it's highly unlikely that very many people see things the way I see them.

A little article I read in the NYTimes about stuff that's happening in Iraq.

"Problems with the ration basket have drawn widespread complaints from Iraqis, for whom the program was one of the few visible connections to the government. The food basket was a constant under Saddam Hussein and even his critics pointed to it as one thing they could rely on. The basket consisted of flour, rice, tea, sugar, salt, dried milk for adults and for children, cooking oil, lentils, chickpeas, soap for washing and laundry, and occasional extras, such as tomato paste or cake flour.

During the past three years, both the selection of products and their quality have diminished, many Iraqis say. Milk has been missing for much of the past three years, although it recently made a reappearance, and there have been cases of rice with bugs in it and stale tea. The extras that families received under Mr. Hussein are a thing of the past.

In violence in Iraq on Tuesday, American soldiers accidentally killed a Sunni Arab neighborhood patrol leader in a small town near the oil-refining city of Baiji, the military said. The man, a member of the American-supported Awakening movement, was shot during an operation to clear a house of insurgents."

I'm not saying that we haven't done anything good there. But I'm not saying we have either. I'm just saying we haven't done all good there. We should think long and hard about the costs of war. Is it worth it?

HILARIOUS!

One of the funniest things I've ever seen!

life

Do you ever have a day when you feel like life just plain could not get any better?

I love those moments. :)

More politics

Nothing is more dangerous in all of human experience than a politician who thinks that those who make war are sent from God.