is in their understanding that changing the rules, the structures, the environment surrounding a person will change the world to produce the desired outcome. Only transformed hearts, not laws, will change the world.
What Internet Porn Does…A Video
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No…
we don’t belong to the government, the government belongs to the people. This is a video from the Democratic National Convention but regardless of party it is a false sentiment and deeply outside the spirit of America.
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People Forget…
that professional sports teams are, well, in the entertainment business, nothing more and nothing less and the result is a misplaced sense of loyalty that only goes one way, to the team.
Teams would like to have us believe, of course, that they are regional assets, that having one makes a city special and that the people in any given place owe the team a kind of allegiance because its there, and its “their” team. Yet nothing could be further from the truth, and the truth can set you free.
A professional sports team, perhaps outside of the Green Bay Packers, never belongs to a community. It’s always been and will continue to be the property of the people who own it, their business, their assets, and their profit. The team produces a product, the entertainment provided by watching people who claim to excel at a particular game, and people pay money to watch these events and buy various items related to the team. It’s a show and you pay for it just like you’d go to a concert or a rodeo or a restaurant.
Now they’ve done a very good job of wrapping it up in some kind of greater loyalty, but there’s nothing per se that’s in it for you. You are loyal to though team but the team is loyal to its owners and if the owners feel that you’re not loyal enough, that is attending games and buying things, they will simply move on and demand that kind of loyalty from another town. That’s why the Colts moved from Dallas to Baltimore to Indianapolis and why the Cardinals are in Arizona after being in Chicago and St. Louis and the Rams are in St. Louis after being in Los Angeles.
The truth is that you owe them nothing. They are a product like anything else. You don’t, for example, have to keep going to a restaurant when you dislike the food and so, in the same way, you don’t have to be loyal to a team that continually puts out a bad product. The “loyalty” professional sports teams demand is a very successful advertising gimmick designed to get you to feel an obligation to financially support their business because somehow its “belongs” to the community. Hogwash.
If a car repair place underperformed on their obligations you’d never go there again so why do you have to show up to watch an entertainment product that continues to disappoint? The answer is that you don’t. The truth is that the team needs to be loyal to you, to give you something worth watching and your loyalty to them is only to the extent that they produce an entertainment product you enjoy. If they don’t you can move on any time you like to something better and let the empty seats tell the team that you’re not interested.
That’s the truth which sets you free. You’re under no obligation to support any professional sports team that fails to live up to your expectations. You’re the consumer. You’re the boss. The teams exist to entertain you with a product you enjoy. You are not obligated in any way to the team unless you choose to be. Good teams will get support. Bad teams will flounder because they should. the power is in your hands.
No more guilt because you think you have the support the local team. You don’t. No more frustration because you’ve invested your heart and soul into an entertainment business (team) that fails to meet your expectations. Switch the channel. Go online. There’s a hundred different things to do and a lot of worthy forms of entertainment available even on Sunday afternoons.
What the heck, you might even relax enough in the morning to enjoy Church!
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I Try Not…
to do too much asking for myself in my prayers any more. I ask for others a lot but for me it seems best to just ask to know where God wants me to be. It actually simplifies prayer. All I have to do is remember two, the Jesus Prayer and the Lord’s Prayer, and that seems to cover all the bases. Pray those sincerely and then rest in God.
Now it doesn’t mean that I don’t get into a flurry of asking for myself at times. I do. I want things to go my way and surely would like to have God agreeing with me. Yet after the tempests of my demands winds down the still small voice reminds me “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me a sinner…” and I start making my way back home.
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On the Death of Rev. Moon…
Having largely disappeared into obscurity as a religious leader the teachings of Rev. Moon have also basically faded from view. Does anyone know a person who is actually a member of the Unification Church? Yet in his time his claims were grand and he was, perhaps, one of the most prominent of the “cult” leaders of his era.
As a side note during my seminary years I did some work as an intern at Montrose Baptist Church in Chicago where the Rev. Jim Jones (no relation) was Pastor. To help pay the bills a second church used the building, a Korean Baptist Church pastored by a Rev. Moon (Moon is a fairly common Korean name).
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Prayers by the Lake…
You pour Your holy oil into the stars, O Holy Spirit, and out of senseless conflagrations You make vigil lamps before the Glory of Heaven. Pour Yourself into my soul also, and out of a passionate conflagration make a vigil lamp before the heavens.
You stroll through fields of flowers without being heard, and You sprinkle the flowers with Your grace, so that the blood of the earth may not look through, but the beauty of God. Sprinkle the field of my soul with Your grace also, so that it may not be said that the field of my soul sprouted from the blood of the earth, but that it is adorned with the beauty of God.
You mingle with every heap of ashes and pour in life. Pour life into the ashes of my body also, so that I may live and glorify Your works.
You tame the fire and wind, and out of demons of fury You make servants of the Most High. Tame my pride and make me a servant of the Most High.
You are kind to the animals in the woods. Show kindness to me also, who am animalized by ignorance.
You fertilize every seed of life. You hover in every womb. You sit in the egg of a bird’s nest and masterfully form a new miracle of life. Fertilize, I beseech You, the invisible seed of goodness within me also, and keep watch over it until it reaches maturity.
O Awesome and Almighty Spirit, by Your presence You turn a den of thieves into a haven of Heaven, and a terrifying universe into a temple of God. Descend into me also, I beseech You, and turn a handful of ashes into what You know how to do and can.
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On Intellectual Humility…
Worth reading. It’s not just what you know but how you know it and the way you approach new knowledge.
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How to Help Your Bassist…
Playing the bass is a ton of fun, almost addicting. OK, it is addicting and most of us who do it aren’t going to rehab any time soon. Good groove is infectious and there’s nothing like dropping the bottom end out of a note and feeling the electric breeze on the back of your pants as you stand in front of the amp. Oh, and by the way, it’s not a bass “guitar”. It’s an electric bass which just happens to be shaped like a guitar, mostly, but not always. Just thought I’d throw that in.
Yet we need help from the guitarists in the world, especially at a jam when everyone is new and we’re trying to figure out how we can make you sound even better with a good dose of vitamin “B” for bass. You sound “tinny” without us and we bassists, well we just don’t have the notes or chords you do to round out the sound. So let’s get together and figure this thing out.
First, don’t assume we know your music. We may, we may sometimes even know it better than you do, but there’s a gazillion tunes out there and we just won’t be able to pick them all up in less than 30 second. Don’t forget that the songs you play are “your” songs. You liked them. You practiced them. Sometimes you wrote them yourself, but they may be entirely new for the bassist. Plus, of course, they will have your own touches, your own keys, your own inflections about which the bassist who shows up at your jam will have little or no clue. Solution? Bring some charts to share, you know, words and chords and such. You’ll give us a good head start and it will help all the other folks in the band who are as clueless about your work as we are.
Second, throw away your capo or give us charts with the ACTUAL chords you play. Don’t simply say “Well I play this in A with a capo six and you can figure out the rest.” With practice we could, on the spot is more difficult especially considering that your average jam bassist, myself included, is a semi professional at best. At least give us a few seconds to get ourselves situated on the fretboard before you start in. Or you can ditch your capo and learn more chords. Either way we can make it work.
Third, please buy and use a metronome. We can’t tell you how many times we’ve chased a performer all around the time signature because they’ve not actually listened to their own rhythm. Most reasonably decent bassists have a clock in their heads, it’s a necessity for playing the instrument, and when 4/4 doesn’t actually mean 4/4 we know it, do our best to reel everyone in, and if that isn’t possible we try to cover for the bouncing ball. We know, you get caught up in the moment, we do too, but the moment will sound a lot better if you play in a time signature from this planet.
Finally, a word of thanks. When it all comes together its very cool. There’s nothing a bassist enjoys more than to be on stage and listen to a great guitarist soar off into the clouds knowing that we’re their wings. We love the low hum, the pounding drive, the octave jumps. We don’t have to be stars but we are essential for the stars and we get a quiet satisfaction from this that only the people who do it share.
Yet don’t forget we’re not simply accessories, we’re artists of our own kind and all the best stuff happens when we’re allowed to be in on the program. Talk to us sometime, you might be surprised what we know, how musical we actually are, and you may even learn something every so often, just like we learn from you.
See you on stage.
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Fake Celebrity….
pranks the city slickers. In a world where people can be famous for, well, being famous, this was bound to happen.
The Beautiful Path 