Quote of the Day

Theodore Roosevelt

It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Quote of the Day

“You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life.”

Winston Churchill

Video of the week - Busted!!!

The authors of Game of Shadows were on the Today Show (Internet Explorer required) to discuss allegations that Barry Bonds did steroids. This reminds me a lot of the Pete Rose scandal as there were many fervant defenders of his innocence up until his admission that he bet on baseball. How can anybody deny that Barry Bonds used steroids? The American tradition is that he is innocent until proven guilty. However, he is now surrounded by a cloud of suspicion that has tainted the game. This cloud will not leave until he is forthright with us.

Ghostly alien terrorists call for cease fire

We love earthlings!

Little did we know that the ETA Basque separatists were not only terrorizing Spain all these years, they are also extra terrestrials.

Tozer Rocks!

One of my favorite devotionals is by A.W. Tozer. I have him listed under my links. Here is the devotional from today.

March 22

Pastoral Ministry: We Languish for Men

Then Paul answered, "What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." --Acts 21:13

The Church at this moment needs men, the right kind of men, bold men....

We languish for men who feel themselves expendable in the warfare of the soul, who cannot be frightened by threats of death because they have already died to the allurements of this world. Such men will be free from the compulsions that control weaker men. They will not be forced to do things by the squeeze of circumstances; their only compulsion will come from within--or from above.

This kind of freedom is necessary if we are to have prophets in our pulpits again instead of mascots. These free men will serve God and mankind from motives too high to be understood by the rank and file of religious retainers who today shuttle in and out of the sanctuary. They will make no decisions out of fear, take no course out of a desire to please, accept no service for financial considerations, perform no religious act out of mere custom; nor will they allow themselves to be influenced by the love of publicity or the desire for reputation. Of God and Men, 11-13.

Quote of the Day

Erwin Raphael McManus

Anyone who can picture Jesus as the great Advocate of tradition is doing some serious doctoring of biblical history. Jesus was anything but the poster child for the status quo.

The Circus is in Town!

I looked out my front window yesterday and saw photographers and people on chairs gathering on the street. Since I live in the historic district of the Capitol, I assumed that some studio was shooting a movie and people were gathering to see their favorite movie star. I was pleasantly surprised to learn that the circus was in town and that they were promoting it by walking elephants and horses through the city. If you step outside my house and look to the right, you have a perfect view of the
Capitol building. The light blue house in the background is the Jonathan House where I live. Fortunately I do not live at the end of the block where the elephants left quite a few presents for people to remember them. I will spare you the photography. It was surreal.

Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife

Has anybody read Learning to Eat Soup with a Knife? The new book on counterinsurgency by Lt. Col. John Nagle is making its way around strategic studies circles. I am interested to hear any comments.

Georgetown

Rome has the Spanish Steps by Francesco De Sanctis . We have the Exorcist steps. A few friends and I went to Georgetown on St. Patrick's Day. At the end of the night we decided to stroll over to the location of the stairs made famous by the movie, "The Exorcist."

Quote of the Day

I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.
Winston Churchill

St. Patrick's Day

Did you know that St. Patrick was English? That's right, he was born in England but was kidnapped and lived as a slave in Ireland. After six years, he was able to escape back to England. But later he felt the call to return to Ireland, the country of his captivity. Enjoy a pint of Guinness today!

Hiking at Great Falls

I went hiking with 10 other friends in Great Falls yesterday. Here are some pictures.

Rick and Stephanie

Smile Rob!

Tom's e-harmony picture

Deep thoughts with Carolyn

You talkin' to me?

Lessons From Another Insurgency

One of my good friends from Johns Hopkins SAIS was Anit Mukherjee. He is currently working on his PhD. in South Asia Studies at Johns Hopkins SAIS. His op-ed about his experience fighting insurgents in Kashmir was published in the New York Times.

Video of the week

This is must see video. Greece Athena High School basketball team manager Jason McElwain, who has autism, is the center of a dream come true and hope for perhaps thousands of others.

In the City

Check out this New York Times article (Registration may be required) about Tim Keller and the Church of the Redeemer in New York City. He's taken the unconventional route to ministry while maintaining an "orthodox" view. Semantics aside, his church is thriving in urban New York.

"This is Tim's thing," said Dr. Um. "He said, 'You need to enter into a person's worldview, challenge that worldview and retell the story based on the Gospel.' The problem is evangelicals have always started with challenging the worldview. We don't have any credibility."

Keller has attempted to embrace the culture without dilluting the gospel.

The Rev. Stephen Um, whose church in Boston, Citylife, began four years ago and now attracts about 500 people every Sunday, said he and other pastors had embraced Dr. Keller's emphasis on delving into the prevailing culture almost as much as into the biblical text.

At the same time, he has resisted stooping down to the lowest common denominator.

"A big part is he preaches on such an intellectual level," said Suzanne Perron, 37, a fashion designer who is one of many who had stopped going to church before she discovered Redeemer several years ago. "You can go to Redeemer and you can not be a Christian and listen to that sermon and be completely engaged."

Even Keller admits that there is no cookie-cutter style that he can export to other churches yet demonstrates that the gospel is more than relevant in urban New York.

Photography

I went to Georgetown yesterday to shoot some pictures with Stephen Elliott and his photography group. I thought I would post some of my highlights. Its amazing how much of every day life you catch on film. I'm finding that one need not find extraordinary events but rather find the extraordinary in what seems to be ordinary.

The Real Gold

Lost in all of the drama between speedskaters Shani Davis and Chad Hedrick is teammate and fellow gold medalist Joey Cheek. Cheek has outclassed all other athletes at the Olympics by donating the $40,000 from his Gold and Silver medal performances to Right to Play which will use the money for children in Chad and the Darfur region in Sudan. When was the last time you heard anybody do that? It is rumored that Cheek will carry the flag for the United States at the closing ceremony. It is fitting and appropriate. Does anybody remember who Bode Miller is?

The most admired company in America

Once again General Electric was named the most admired company in America by Fortune Magazine. Here's a few highlights about GE taken straight from the article by Geoffrey Colvin.

1. "The company's most important product was not light bulbs or transformers but managerial talent."

2. An ability to change direction unabashedly. "Most people inside GE learn from the past but have a healthy disrespect for history," says CEO Jeff Immelt. "They have an ability to live in the moment and not be burdened by the past, which is extremely important."

3. "GE does one more big thing: develop people, evaluate them, and act on the results."

4. "Most organizations will never establish any kind of intellectual leadership."

5. "The result of GE's seamless, constant reinvention of itself is that while companies are constantly emulating GE, they're frequently a step or more behind, and they know it."

6. "GE, like anywhere else, has a little bit of politics, a little bit of personal stuff and all that," he says, "but compared with all the other organizations I know, it's minimized. It's upfront. You know what you have to do to succeed."

A few laughs

I've been laughing all day long from this interview of "The Flying Tomato" Shaun White who just won gold at the Olympics.

Barbaric Orthodoxy

The Barbarian Way by Erwin Raphael McManus is a short read in the storybook style which anybody could read in an evening. With a background in political military affairs, I found the constant reference to being a "barbarian" a little discomforting as I am quite particular about historical accuracy. But, if one were to read his work critically, you would easily be able to separate the difference between the literal and the implied meaning. It is obvious that he is relying on the connotation of the word and in no way hopes to make a historical commentary . However, let us not dwell on semantics.

My real point of this post is why must we refer to an authentic faith as "The Barbarian Way"? Is it that when we water down the gospel, pervert, or distort it, a return to authentic faith requires us to get radical in our descriptions?

Pastor Mark Batterson loves this quotes from Dorothy Sayers. "To do them justice, the people who crucified Jesus did not do so because he was a bore. Quite the contrary; he was too dynamic to be safe. It has been left for later generations to muffle up that shattering personality and surround him with an atmosphere of tedium. We have declawed the lion of Judah and made him a housecat for pale priests and pious old ladies."

Are we called to radicalism or is it that the genuine call is radical when compared to the norm? G.K. Chesterton states "People have fallen into a foolish habit of speaking of orthodoxy as something heavy, humdrum and safe. There never was anything so perilous or so exciting as orthodoxy."

How is it that fishermen are turned into fishers of men, a shepherd boy slays a giant and is made king of Israel, a cupbearer made governor, and one of the greatest persecutors of the faith becomes one of its most ardent defenders? Was there journey perilous? Exciting? Adventurous? Without a doubt. Is this way barbaric? Maybe. If you do not think so, perhaps we must get more graphic than this.