Sawblade's speeches

My brother and I went to see Rush Hour 3 today. My digestive system was giving me fits for a good chunk of the movie, but once it finally calmed down I started laughing with the rest of the people in the theater. It was quite hilarious. If you've seen it, then it's certainly inspiring to French cab drivers everywhere who desire to become American spies! :P

ABC news is reporting today on the personal letters of Mother Teresa, where she expresses doubts about God and faith. Obviously, the reactions to her letters have proven controversial.

From http://www.abcnews.go.com/WN/story?id=3521905&page=1

"But while the faithful see her struggle as inspirational, some atheists are taking it as confirmation of their own rational doubts and proof that the faithless can display enormous benevolence.
'Of course nonbelievers all over the world display compassion,' said Dan Barker of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. "She was forced to go through the motions and admitted her own hypocrisy.""

Mother Teresa was still a human who has doubts like the rest of us. Even Jesus said on the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" -Matthew 27:46. If Jesus himself could feel forsaken by God amidst terrible circumstances, how is it that we can believe that His followers wouldn't feel doubt during times of great suffering? It would be nice if amidst suffering, God would come and say to us as he said to Paul, "My grace is sufficient for you" so that we would have confidence He cares for us and hasn't abandoned us.

If having doubts about God = hypocrisy, then let me be the first to admit to being a hypocrite.

In a very bizarre move the Eagles released Jeremiah Trotter today. I don't agree with the move at all, but I'm not managing the team so it's really not my call. I hope the Eagles know what they're doing ... you never want to see anyone go who has as much passion for playing as Trotter.

We'll miss ya, axe man.

(Photo taken by George Widman, AP)

At church this morning, Anne, the associate pastor at Westminster, gave a sermon on "How to run a marathon". Ok, well not a literal marathon. She began by asking the congregation how many had actually run a marathon before. I don't think a single hand went up. Then, how about a half marathon? Still nothing. A 10K? A few hands went up, including myself. A 5K? A few more hands. She then commented that once she tried to train for a race but ended up getting shin splints.... so much for her "running career". Ironically she said that our lead pastor, Greg, would be better for this sermon, as he actually has run them before!
When listening to this, all I could think of was Brian Lee, when he mentioned to us a week ago that he was training for a marathon. Wow. Especially given the criteria that one must pass in a regular marathon to be eligible for the Boston Marathon!
Obviously, the church's goal isn't to train us on physical fitness (or at least not the primary goal). The "marathon" or "race" concept was a metaphor described in Hebrews 11 and 12, stressing the necessity for Christians to run the race of faith with perseverance, with knowledge that those of times past who have successfully run the race are on the sidelines cheering us on every step of the way. And of course, stressing the importance on keeping focus through this race that Jesus is the pioneer and perfecter of faith, as well as the prize for completing the race successfully.
I hope that we can find a way to keep ourselves more focused on Jesus as we go through this journey called life. It's so easy to be focused on the trials and trifles of everyday life (I am certainly guilty of this on a regular basis!) rather than the things that God asks of us.

My brother and I have decided on an apartment that's within walking distance of where he works. Hopefully within the next few days we'll get to sign a lease for it.

Well, here goes nothing!

I didn't know testing software had a sense of humor... I was running a script today and the testing software gave me a popup that said "Catastrophic failure"!

I-95 sucks. It took almost 2 hours to get from the blue route (I-476) to the Naamans Road exit thanks to their lovely construction project. (We're talking a stretch of like 6-7 miles!)

The best thing about Friday is that you know you don't have to get up early the next morning.