simple truths

I didn't know my own strength And then it hit me, So I turned the other cheek And the enemy charged, Right into my warm embrace And it then pushed me away, But I had already let it go And then it came stalking, I waved asking 'how do ya do?' And then it finally asked me, Why can't I get to you? And wind blew the door open.

Would you be surprised if I told you religion and God have very little to do with one another? Or that going to church does not make you Christian? What if I said you would be closer to the truth if you threw away everything you ever knew about "God" and "Jesus," and turned everything you have learned about religion upside down on its ass? This is the simple truth however. As I tried to explain the powers of the universe to my twelve year old son, who claims already to be an atheist,  I asked him what or who God was. He described a man with a white beard who lives up on a cloud with a magic staff, who controls people and grants wishes, or 'prayers.' In that case, I replied, I did not believe in the same god that he did not believe in. When I inquired into his beliefs about the universal field of energy in which we all share, he disclosed his belief about "The Force." "'The Force,' you call it?...That's God!", I told him. H...

                                Beth  9 How can a young person stay on the path of                  purity?          By living according to your word. 10 I seek you with all my heart;          Do not let me stray from your commands. 11 I have hidden your word in my heart          that I might not sin against you. 12 Praise be to you, LORD;          teach me your decrees. 13 With my lips I recount          all the laws that have come from your mouth. 14 I rejoice in following your statutes          as one rejoices in great riches. 15 I meditate on your precepts          and consider your ways. 16 I delight in your decrees;          I will ...

For years we've been told to slather on the sunscreen when we go outside. We have been told that Mr. Golden Sun is to blame for ever increasing rates of skin cancer. But, I wonder why this more obvious cause has not been pointed out- especially since most, Americans anyhow, spend their time indoors. And since the rise in skin cancer seems correlated to the increased use of fluorescent lighting.  I discovered this darker side of fluorescent bulbs when a neighbor of mine stopped by, he was all excited to grow his own pot after the recent legalization of marijuana here in Oregon. He wanted to buy a fluorescent light strip I had in my shed because he was building a mini grow-room. He said, "I found out I can just use fluorescent lights in place of grow lights." Puzzled by how this could be, I did some research. All fluorescent lights are UV lights! What? 'You mean we're walking under artificial sun lamps all day?' Yes we are. A fluorescent light is a UV light ...

You've been caught in the midst of a conversation about the latest new tech gadget, or at least you think that's what they're talking about. You hear the word 'cache' and you just smile and nod- not wanting to appear uninformed, assuming that most others know about this new thing. Then you see this word appear on your phone and your computer. By now, you probably have a hazy sense of its meaning, still assuming you must be the only one left out of the loop. You're not I promise. I am a computer whiz, and I really can't describe what a cache is exactly, and when it became so important. I am guessing it must be something that 'catches' your data or holds it.  Only, that word is actually pronounced, 'cash-ay.' Who knew? Probably no one you ever heard say it. Is our tech world maybe just a grander, more real life, version of, 'The Emperor's New Wardrobe.' One of my children's favorite tales, it is about an Emperor who g...

We think of th spiritual realm as cosmic and larger than life. But what if we have it backwards and the spiritual realm is actually on a microbiological level (at least in part)? Christ himself said, "The Kingdom of God is within you." What began this train of thought was listening to a radio show, where a genomic researcher had commented that 90% of our DNA was not really ours, but belonged rather to microbes. It has long been understood that we are made up of more "other things", than we are made up of our own cells. How hard would it be for a foreign or unwanted microbe to take over a person? Much like  we talk about a person being overtaken by an evil spirit. Lets define a spirit; an unseen force which manifests itself in other living things.  Now define microbe; a microscopic organism which reproduces itself inside other living things. The custom of saying "Bless you," when someone sneezes, comes from the superstition that your sneeze was ...

       "Someone has to, may as well be me."I have held to this philosophy as a core principle in life. This is what provides unbending courage to take on the jobs no one else wants, the one to raise my hand if there must be a volunteer. This principle is one I don't question. Think of the magician on stage, asking for a volunteer- a shaky audience sitting in stark silence. You can almost hear the crowd thinking to themselves, "Who's gonna go first? Not me." But, there I am without delay, hand up. Now do I 'want' to volunteer to be sawed in half? No, not particularly. I don't question it though, I just raise my hand.. My endeavor to educate people about their bill of rights (yawn*) came less from inspiration and more from the idea, "Someone must, it may as well be me." In a classroom setting, I apply this same principle when I ask a question no one else wants to ask. Inevitably, there are many other students who had the same questio...