Web of Protection

My mom emailed me this little story. I thought it was pretty neat.

GOD AND THE SPIDER

During World War II, a US marine was separated from his unit on a Pacific
island. The fighting had been intense, and in the smoke and the crossfire
he had lost touch with his comrades.

Alone in the jungle, he could he hear enemy soldiers coming in his
direction. Scrambling for cover, he found his way up a high ridge to
several small caves in the rock. Quickly he crawled inside one of the
caves. Although safe for the moment, he realized that once the enemy
soldiers looking for him swept up the ridge, they would quickly search
all the caves and he would be killed.

As he waited, he prayed, "Lord, if it be your will, please protect me.
Whatever your will though, I love you and trust you. Amen."

After praying, he lay quietly listening to the enemy begin to draw close.
He thought, "Well, I guess the Lord isn't going to help me out of this
one." Then he saw a spider begin to build a web over the front of his
cave.

As he watched, listening to the enemy searching for him all the while,
the spider layered strand after strand of web across the opening of the
cave.

"Hah, he thought. "What I need is a brick wall and what the Lord has sent
me is a spider web. God does have a sense of humor."

As the enemy drew closer he watched from the darkness of his hideout and
could see them searching one cave after another. As they came to his, he
g ot ready to make his last stand. To his amazement, however, after
glancing in the direction of his cave, they moved on. Suddenly, he
realized that with the spider web over the entrance, his cave looked as
if no one had entered for quite a while. "Lord, forgive me," prayed the
young man. "I had forgotten that in you a spider's web is stronger than a
brick wall."

We all face times of great trouble. When we do, it is so easy to forget
the victories that God would work in our lives, sometimes in the most
surprising ways. As the great leader, Nehemiah, reminded the people of
Israel when they faced the task of rebuilding Jerusalem, "In God we will
have success!" [Nehemiah 2:20]

And remember: Whatever is happening in your life, in God, a mere spider's
web becomes a brick wall of protection.

Gone to the Dogs

As I was sitting on the bed this morning reading the blogs, Pete, one of my Jack Russells, was lying next to me snoozing peacefully. When I reached over and rubbed his head, he responded by rolling over onto his back and showing me his belly, wanting me to rub it instead. After a minute or so, I stopped, but he wasn’t ready to quit. When he wants a petting, he nudges his head up underneath my hand, or he paws at my arm (which really hurts, by the way, when his toenails rake across my skin) until I give in and pet him. He won’t let me stop until he’s ready—he could go on forever (kind of like the way I would let Husband scratch my back until it bled if he would). If I want to stop petting him, I have to actually get up and move, or I have to be firm with him and hurt his feelings. It doesn’t take much to hurt his feelings, either. One firm word will do it.

A funny thing about him is that if he does something he shouldn’t have done, he’ll punish himself. For instance, if he has an accident in the house and knows that I have found it, he’ll hunker down and slink off to the bedroom. He tries to hide under the bed, but he can only get himself halfway there. It’s funny to see him with his little backside sticking out.

As I am writing this, Emily, my Cocker Spaniel, is sitting next to the bed looking at me intently and whining periodically. She’s letting me know that it’s time to eat (she would eat all day long if I let her—she used to be overweight—we changed her diet so that she’d lose five pound, which is a lot for a little dog). When I acknowledged her presence, Pete became jealous and started pawing at my hand again, making it nearly impossible to type.

Trixie, Pete’s sister (although they look nothing alike as far as physical shape) is off doing her own thing. She’s probably under the bed or in the living room under the couch. She likes to be by herself when we’re in the house, but she comes out when there’s some action, and she loves to watch Animal Planet on TV. I actually have to change the channel to get her to calm down (she even barks at the horses when Husband watches Gunsmoke). It’s sort of funny though, when Pete catches Trixie barking at the TV, he goes and makes her stop. It’s as if he doesn’t want her to have any fun.

Trixie has a really terrible habit. Sometimes when she comes back after exploring around our five acres, she will stink to high heaven after having rolled around in the most foul, putrid, disgusting smelling mess that she can find. When she does this, I have to stop what I am doing and immediately give her a bath because there’s no way she can be in the house like that. It’s all I can do sometimes not to throw up when this happens.

Trixie and Pete need a lot of supervision when they are outside. They will run off after anything that moves, ignoring any danger that may be lurking. Emily is more sensible. I can trust her to look after herself and can let her out without supervision.

As much trouble as they can get into, Husband and I love those little dogs. It’s funny how humans can be so ga-ga over a completely different species. They don’t act, think, or talk like us, but they bring us such enjoyment. We’d do anything for them.

I am convinced that our dogs love Husband and me. They may not understand love as humans define it, but in their own way, they love us, and I think they like to try to please us. We’re like gods to them. They trust us to take care of them, rub their bellies when they want it, give them food when they need it—although sometimes they act as if they are half starved, like we’re going to forget to feed them; they can be very demanding at times.

Dogs and humans are a lot alike. We humans have personalities that are quite different from each other; we have our idiosyncrasies—we even have some disgusting habits. And God looks down on us and takes great pleasure in us. He sees the things we do and loves us anyway—even when we’ve been rolling around in filth. We love him the best that we can; we don’t know that our definition of love is so very different from his, but we try. And we don’t even have to get it right—he’ll rub our bellies anyway if we’ll just roll over and let him.

Being Yourself?

Dr. Mike had a really good post yesterday about being naked before God, family, and friends.

(No, not nekkid--get out of the gutter!)

Advice From Armchair Physicians

I could use your advice. Several months ago as I was walking across the parking lot, my foot turned out from under me causing me to fall. The top of my foot from the front of my ankle across to the top of the middle of my foot (if you can picture that) has stayed somewhat sore. Day before yesterday I accidently stepped in a hole in the yard with the same foot, which turned out from under me, causing me to fall again. (I was pretty pitiful; you should have seen me sitting in my front yard whimpering with no one there to give me any sympathy!)

Now my foot is very sore, but it's the same amount of sore just resting as it is walking on it. I don't limp on it much, except when I first get up in the morning or after I have been sitting for a few minutes. It really isn't hindering me from doing anything--it's just sore.

Do you think this is a problem I need to visit a podiatrist about, or do I just have a sore tendon?

Edit: 8:06.
Also, is it just me getting older, or does anyone else find that web pages that have black backgrounds with light type are blurry?

March to Justice?

How can a man be charged with the murder of his wife and abuse of a corpse when no corpse has ever been found, and no evidence of foul play had been discovered?

Very Puzzling

Here's a passage I find quite baffling:
“Simon, Simon, Satan has asked to have all of you, to sift you like wheat. ³² But I have pleaded in prayer for you, Simon, that your faith should not fail. So when you have repented and turned to me again, strengthen and build up your brothers.”
³³ Peter said, “Lord, I am ready to go to prison with you, and even to die with you.”
³⁴ But Jesus said, “Peter, let me tell you something. The rooster will not crow tomorrow morning until you have denied three times that you even know me.”
³⁵ Then Jesus asked them, “When I sent you out to preach the Good News and you did not have money, a traveler’s bag, or extra clothing, did you lack anything?”

“No,” they replied.
³⁶ “But now,” he said, “take your money and a traveler’s bag. And if you don’t have a sword, sell your clothes and buy one! ³⁷ For the time has come for this prophecy about me to be fulfilled: ‘He was counted among those who were rebels.’ Yes, everything written about me by the prophets will come true.”
³⁸ “Lord,” they replied, “we have two swords among us.”

“That’s enough,” he said.

Holy Bible : New Living Translation. 1997, c1996 (electronic ed.) (Lk 22:31). Wheaton: Tyndale House.

Savings and Loans

Remember the $10 I saved by dropping the text and picture messaging from my cell phone plan? I got a letter last week saying that the state's matching 401k contribution for state employees is being increased from $20 to $30. What a cool "coincidence"!

In other money news, I just returned from the bank where I made the final payment on the Kenworth. Debt reduction just shifted into high gear!

Learning Obedience

Hebrews 5.8 says, "So even though Jesus was God's son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered" (NLT).

Why did Jesus have to learn obedience? I have heard many people say that Jesus could not have sinned because God is incapable of sin, and Jesus and his father are one. So if he couldn't sin, why did he have to learn obedience?

One size does not fit all.

Spent a girls' day at the mall yesterday with Mom, Sister-in-law, and her four girls, and boy was I tired by the end of the day. Sister-in-law (from now on abbreviated SIL) wanted me to pick out school clothes for the 2nd grader. Last year in 1st grade, her little girl was picked on a lot, and apparently some of it stemmed from her clothes, so SIL wanted to make sure that 2nd grader has cool clothes this year. SIL thinks I am more fashion savvy than she is; I don't know about that, but I'll take the compliment.

I guess since I've been around college students for so long, I had forgotten that little kids can be so mean to each other.

Anyway, the shopping trip was pretty successful except for one area--pants. 2nd grader is a little bit chunky around the middle--not fat, but not a skinny kid. It seems, though, that little girls' pants are made for miniature super models. If the pants fit around the waist, they are much too long. We did find some really cute pants that had drawstrings around the hem that could be gathered up so that they don't drag the ground, and they looked great on 2nd grader, but they cost over $30. Why on earth do little girl pants cost so much? I cannot fathom paying that much for clothes for kids, especially when they will only be able to wear them for one year or less before growing out of them. It's ridiculous. Makes me very glad that I don't have kids of my own that I have to shop for.

Have any of you experienced this type of problem when shopping for little kids? Is there a company that makes reasonably priced, fashionable clothes that fit girls of different shapes and sizes? SIL and I would be greatful for such a place.

Hot Mushrooms

I just returned from Kroger where I experienced a dillema. As I was putting my groceries in the truck, I noticed a bag with one item in it. When I looked inside, I found a package of mushrooms. My first thought was, "The guy in front of me didn't get his mushrooms." I hate it when that kind of thing happens to me.

Then I thought, "Hey, I needed some mushrooms." I'm fixing kabobs tonight and had forgotten all about the mushrooms. I don't eat them, but Husband likes them.

Then I thought, "But those aren't my mushrooms; they belong to somebody else." But that person was already gone, I reasoned, so there really was no harm in keeping them. I also reasoned that the mushrooms weren't technically stolen because they had been paid for.

I continued to dialogue in my head about whether or not to keep the mushrooms. Anyone passing by would never have known that I was having a terrible crisis of conscience going on as I was loading my grocery sacks. The sweat on my forehead wasn't attributable only to the heat.

I placed the last sack in the truck, pushed my cart to the cart corral (I hate it when people don't put their carts back where they belong--I have a story about that too!), opened the driver's door, and started to get in, anticipating the cool of the air conditioning and my Mavericks CD starting as soon as I turned the key. I barely got one foot up onto the running board.

"Dang it, why do you do this to me?" I exclaimed as I got back out of the truck, opened the rear door, grabbed the bag and headed back into the store. I took the bag to the customer service counter and told the girl working there that someone would probably be calling saying that he didn't get his mushrooms. She thanked me. I headed around to the produce section, picked up a package of mushrooms, went back through the checkout and paid for them. Then I got back into my truck and didn't think about it any more until I got home and started telling you about it.

This is the sort of thing I go through. I have gone back into stores to pay for a 50 cent item that I have accidently "stolen." Usually the customer service people think I'm crazy.

I sincerely hope that this is a test and that I'm about to get a big reward for it. But I rather suspect that God just likes to have a little fun with me every now and then.

TV Disappointments

Previews for the new fall TV shows have begun, and let me say that I am unimpressed. Now, I don't watch a lot of TV, but there are a few shows that I like. CSI is not one of them. Or three of them, or however many incarnations that show has now. I notice that CBS will be bringing in at least one new crime show--thankfully, not another CSI. But how many more crime shows do we really need?

CBS has cancelled my very favorite show, Joan of Arcadia. Joan was a good, clean, family-oriented program in which a teenager talked to God and tried to do what God wanted. I guess viewers couldn't handle that. Now, instead of Joan talking to God, Jennifer Love Hewitt will talk to dead people.

I guess I'll be watching more Andy Griffith and Leave it to Beaver on TVLand.

Beware: Don't look like a suspicious character!

If it rains today, don't risk being mistaken for a terrorist and shot to death. Wear this raincoat:



And when you carry a bag, carry this one:

Good Stewards?

Lakewood Church in Houston moved into its new facilities this past weekend, the old Compaq Center where the Houston Rockets used to play. To convert it to a church--complete with giant video screens, waterfalls, and a giant globe--cost around $90 million. (For pictures go to http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/news/071605_local_lakewood.html# and click on "See images.")

I wonder how much the waterfalls cost and how many hungry people could have been fed instead?

Your suggestions, please.

In my freshman writing course, I usually teach an evaluation essay. This requires students to make a judgement statement about something (a book, movie, etc.) and back up the judgement with reasons and evidence. (You'd be surprised at how difficult the reasons and evidence part is for some students!) In the past, we have watched a movie in class, and they have written a review of the movie. I'm thinking of doing that again this semester, and I'd like some suggestions for movies that would be appropriate for 18-20-year-olds with a variety of interests. The movie needs to have a story that is more complex than just the basic "boy meets girl and they get together after some conflicts" or the "good guy goes after the bad guy and lots of things get blown up" stories. In the past we have watched The Count of Monte Cristo, The Shawshank Redemption, Open Range, and Ladder 49 (which actually wasn't that good of a choice for this assignment). In other words, the story needs to be one that has some meaning and will make the students think a little bit, but I also don't want it to be too "artsy."

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

PS. I'm feeling much better although I am still a little congested. Thanks for your prayers!

Work to live, or live to work?

You might want to put your toes under your chair for this one. I had to.

A survey released earlier this year of 7,718 American workers found that:

“[. . .] only 45 percent of workers say they are satisfied (33 percent) or extremely satisfied (12 percent) with their jobs. At the same time, a much lower number actually feel very "engaged" by their jobs. Only 20 percent feel very passionate about their jobs; less than 15 percent agree that they feel strongly energized by their work; and only 31 percent (strongly or moderately) believe that their employer inspires the best in them.”

“Increasing numbers of employees are coping with burnout (42 percent), while one-third (33 percent) believe they have reached a dead end in their jobs, and 21 percent are eager to change their jobs.”

“Nearly all workers were seeking more time off -- and a better balance between work and leisure” ("New Employer/Employee Equation Survey,” conducted by Harris Interactive, Inc.).

If this survey is accurate, this means that most American workers
are unhappy with their work and feel that what they are doing is
not worthwhile. How sad that we spend at least 40 hours per
week doing something that we’d rather not be doing, feeling
that we aren’t doing our best work, and wishing we were somewhere else.

I wonder, though, how much of the fault lies with the workers
themselves? Why do workers stay in careers they don’t really like?
 (I’m not talking here about unskilled, minimum wage earners
who don’t really have much choice in their careers, but
college-educated or other skilled workers.) Why do so many
 people not do what they really want to do?

I assert that most people do not have the career that they really want because they feel they must take the job that will pay the bills. They are not willing to sacrifice lifestyle in order to take a job that they will really enjoy. Lots of middle class Americans stretch themselves to the limit in order to live in a house that is probably too high-priced for their budget so that they will be in a “better” neighborhood. They buy or lease a new car every two to three years. They make sure that their kids wear the most fashionable clothes and participate in plenty of extracurricular activities (to keep up their self-esteem). They use up their savings to take a vacation to the beach every summer. Rather than scale back their lifestyle, most people would rather work in a career that they don’t really care for in order to live what society claims is the “American Dream.”

The sad thing is that a lot of Christians fall into this category. Although we know that Jesus called us to a life of sacrifice and servanthood, many of us believe that sacrifice means eating out only once or twice in a week in order to put more money in the offering plate on Sunday. I know that a lot of Christian parents will say that they work they way they do so that their children will have better lives and good opportunities, and I certainly understand that. We want to ensure that our children have good futures. However, if we really believe that God is in charge of the future, why aren’t we modeling the ethic of self sacrifice so that we can help others in the now? Why not work at a career that is more fulfilling or allows more family time and do without some of the perks that we have come to believe we are entitled to?

Perhaps the work we’d really rather be doing is what God intended us to do in the first place. He knows us better than we know ourselves, so he knows what is going to make us happy. He wouldn’t call us to a life of sacrifice if he weren’t going to make sure that all of our needs are met. He wouldn’t ask us to be servants if he weren’t going to make sure that we feel fulfilled in our work.

The other day, I heard a news story that gave me pause. I’m not sure about the exact details, but what is important is the essence of what the lady said. Some ladies make pies at church every Saturday and sell them in order to give the money to charity. One of the ladies, commenting on their endeavor, said something to the effect that while Christians aren’t supposed to feel good about their work for the Lord, she does feel good about what she’s doing. I guess the notion is that when we work for the Lord it should be a sacrifice, and sacrifice necessitates negative feelings. I think some people think that all pleasure comes from the devil.

Why would God call us to do something that we would hate doing? Psalm 37.3-4 says, “Trust in the Lord and do good; dwell in the land and enjoy safe pasture. Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” He wants us to be happy and fulfilled, and when we seek to please him by being a true disciple, he will see to it that we are happy.

Sacrifice and servanthood are not ideas that society values as particularly appetizing, but is what society is serving up really satisfying our hunger for fulfillment? No matter how hard we try, we cannot bring our own fulfillment; true and lasting fulfillment comes from God.

Pass the Salt

This week I have been suffering from a sinus infection brought on by an allergy attack, and I have been unable to breathe. A bad side effect to this is that my taste buds are off and nothing has tasted good for the last few days. We have gone out to eat a couple of times, and nothing I ate had any flavor. I had to pour the salt on to get anything to taste halfway good. The first thing I’ve eaten this week that has tasted good was some pasta sauce I made last night that I socked with salt and spices.

Ironically, this ties in with the bible passage I made note of in my last post. As I was reading the passage in Luke about counting the cost of being a disciple of Jesus, I noticed that the passage ended with Jesus saying something about salt that loses its flavor and becomes worthless (Luke 14. 25-35). Jesus also told his disciples that they are the salt of the earth (Matthew 5.13). Now, I have never really given this passage a lot of thought, but now that I think about it, I’m curious, and I wonder how the saltiness idea connects with the counting the cost of being his disciple idea.

I looked up salt in some of my resources and here are some interesting things I found out about it:

Salt brings out flavor in otherwise bland foods—of course, we knew this already. Anybody who has ever made real pancakes or biscuits (not Bisquick) and left out the salt can attest to this fact.

Salt is used as a preservative. Meat cured in salt doesn’t have to be refrigerated—think country ham. (By the way, how does anybody eat that stuff? Yuck!)

Salty ground is infertile; no vegetation grows around the Dead Sea (hence the name). In the bible, salt was sown on people’s land to render it infertile.

Salt was rubbed on newborn babies. I imagine this acts as a cleansing agent and kills germs. Some cultures still do this.

Salt was always offered with sacrifices. I’m guessing this was symbolic of purity and lack of decay (the preservative quality), but I’ll bet on days when there were a lot of offerings to “process,” the salt kept the sacrifices fresh.

Salt was symbolic of covenants.

Salt was a valuable commodity. Roman soldiers were often paid in salt—hence the saying “not worth his salt.”

Some of the salt that was found near the Dead Sea was like rock salt but it was sometimes impure because it was subject to the elements and the outer layer of it was flavorless.

Now what do we do with this information? If we are disciples of Jesus, we are called to be the salt of the earth. How do the qualities of salt come into play in our lives? If salt is a preservative, we must be a preservative of sorts. Our world is in a state of moral decay, so we are the part of the world that is not decaying, the part that is staying pure. Salt brings out flavor, so we should bring “flavor” to the world. The lives of Jesus’ disciples should be a different flavor from the lives of other people—we should live differently. And I think we should also bring flavor to bland situations—I’m thinking of those types of Christians who are afraid to have any fun.

Now I’m wondering about the salty, infertile ground part. Is there such a thing as being a too salty disciple? Maybe we can become so fanatical that we turn people off instead of attracting them. I don’t know.

Being sick with this sinus infection gave me another thought about it. Just like I can’t taste anything that isn’t good and salty while I’m sick, people who are spiritually sick need a good salty person to help them along their journey of getting better.

OK, my brain is hurting now, and I’m not sure that I’m making any sense here. Perhaps you can add some thoughts about how to be a good, salty disciple.

Two Masters

Disclaimer: Writing this one made me just a little bit uncomfortable.

Jesus taught that people can’t have two masters and that we cannot serve both God and money. Most Christians would probably not say that they are serving money rather than God, but how accurate are we when we say that? I believe that most of us have our hearts in the right place—we aren’t actively out chasing the almighty dollar trying to get rich just for the sake of having more and more money, and we likely aren’t spending every dollar on frivolous material items that we don’t really need. We contribute to church and charity and help others who are in need whenever we can. But even though we do all this, are we fully serving God, or are we, in actuality, serving money?

Proverbs 22.7 tells us that just as the rich rule over the poor, so is the borrower servant to the lender. When we borrow money, for whatever reason, we become beholden to the person or institution who loaned us that money. As good Christians, we know that we are obligated to pay back that money, so we order our lives in such a way as to make sure that we can earn enough to pay a little each month on that loan. Some of us even take out insurance policies that will pay off the loan in the event that something happens and we can’t earn money. We are very prudent to not place our means of income in jeopardy.

I assert that because we are in debt, we are unable to fully serve God even if our hearts want to. Every time we make a big decision, we take into consideration how much money we owe and how much we are earning. Our debt level often makes it very difficult to follow where God’s spirit is leading us to serve. How many of us can immediately drop what we are doing to follow Jesus in the same way that we see his disciples do in the bible? Peter and Andrew and James and John left their fishing nets and followed Jesus at once when he called to them. Matthew immediately left his desk at the tax office to follow Jesus. How many of us can just get up and go wherever he leads on only a moment’s notice? How many of us can take a lower paying job that frees up time to serve him? How many times have we seen stories about people in need and wished we could go across the country and help, if only we didn’t have to take time off our job that pays the mortgage? I am not saying it is bad to be a homeowner, but if God calls us to physically relocate, most of us will have to ask him to wait a month so that we can sell the house and pack up the possessions. As much as we hate to admit it, our debt has caused many of us to serve money more than we serve God.

Jesus said that the cost of being his disciple is high and that we should make sure we know what that cost is before we begin the journey. Are we willing to pay that high price? Which is more costly—totally being his disciple or trying to serve two masters?

What if we really lived like Jesus?

Thanks to Tony, I am reading Mere Discipleship by Lee C. Camp. After having read the first two chapters, I am intrigued by the question that Camp raises: What if everyone really lived the way that Jesus and his disciples lived; what if we made Jesus’ life an example and model for our own? The popular opinion, Camp asserts, is that

“the way of Christ is simply not a relevant social ethic, lest injustice reign and the violent vanquish the righteous. Christians cannot take the way of Christ seriously, or society will fall apart, will sink into a spiral of unmitigated violence. Justice is at stake. Civilization itself is at stake. Jesus could not have meant that we take him seriously in the realm of social and political realities—after all, what would happen if everybody did that?! Consequently, “Jesus,” “Christianity,” and even “discipleship” are reduced to a mere “spirituality,” a realm that has little if anything to do with the concrete realities of culture, civilization, and politics.” (page 34)

Christ’s teachings, says Camp, “inform our attitudes, but not our actions” (36). His teachings are something that we internalize for the sake of our spirituality but don’t necessarily live out because it isn’t practical in our society.

I have to wonder, what would happen if all Christians started to live the kind of life that Jesus and the apostles did? What would that entail?

Jesus had a completely self-sacrificing attitude, not just in his death on the cross, but in his life as well. His own personal comfort was secondary to the needs of others. He did not own a house full of stuff. He spent his time taking care of the needs of others rather than working at a job to pay for a house and all the materials to fill it.

What if Christians suddenly decided to live on less money than we earn, buying only what is necessary for life, and using the rest to help others? What if we downsized our houses, got rid of cars with payments and drove—gasp!—paid for cars, stopped eating out so much, bought fewer new clothes, did without the latest gadgets, etc. I think if we did that, we could work less because we wouldn’t have so much to pay for, and we could spend more time with our families, and we could spend more time just being nice to people. We would be healthier because of the reduced stress. Of course, we probably wouldn’t have computers and be here blogging about it.

However, there would be some repercussions on the national economy if Christians suddenly lived like Christ. If we downsized and paid off all our debt, the economy would suffer without our paying all that interest on houses, cars, and credit card purchases. Stores would lose money because we wouldn’t be buying so much. Stocks would plummet. It could cause chaos. We would be blamed for the downfall of the American way of life—and then talk about persecution!

So I guess we’d better stay the way we are. We don’t want to rock the boat or have people look at us like we’re crazy. Living too much like Jesus would be a burden and a cross that we don’t want to shoulder—no matter what Jesus said.

Giveaway

I just gave away a coffee maker that I no longer use. Instead of it sitting in my closet taking up space, it will now serve someone who can use it.

I have been asking God for help in simplifying, and I think this is a good way to start. Freecycle is a network of groups that allows people to post items to give away. I posted my coffee maker as sort of a test to see how well this works, and within just a few hours I had four people wanting it. A lady just left my house--she drove all the way from town to pick it up.

If you don't want to fool with trying to sell stuff, and you don't care who gets your stuff or for what reason they get it, you might want to try this.

You clean out your closet, and somebody comes and gets the stuff! What a concept!

Making Change

Today I have been looking for ways to cut spending in order to increase giving. This morning I have dropped the unlimited text and picture messaging from my cell phone service. This has freed up $9.99 (and probably some tax as well). Honestly, why in the world do I need to text message someone? And why do I need to send photos over the phone? I carry a digital camera in my backpack--if people want to see a picture that I take, they can wait until I get home. Also, there's really no need to surf the Internet from my phone.

I have also dropped our alarm monitoring service. This will save $25.95 a month. Of course, the lady tried to get me to keep the service, reminding me that I also have smoke alarm monitoring. She offered to cut the fee to $15.00, which I politely declined. I figure that it's all just stuff--why should I pay someone to watch it? No one broke in, nor did we have a fire before we had the service; I think we'll be fine without it. Besides, it just doesn't sit well with me to pay someone to "watch" my earthly treasures.

I now have $35.94 to use for other purposes, and I plan to use part of it for giving and the rest for debt reduction. $35.94 isn't much, but it's a start. It feels good to have done this today. I don't feel any more righteous, but I feel like I have accomplished something. I have probably lost my blessing for telling you this, but that's OK. I've been blessed pretty well already.