Yahoo! News - Conductor Kills Self Inside L.A. Cathedral

Yahoo! News - Conductor Kills Self Inside L.A. Cathedral

A sad story. There is much pain felt around Christmas, even amoung those who seem to have it all.

Some Quotes on Love

If you judge people, you have no time to love them.
--Mother Teresa

We must love one another or die
--W.H. Auden

Love built on beauty, soon as beauty, dies.
--John Donne

How bold one gets when one is sure of being loved
--Sigmund Freud

When the power of love overcomes the love of power the world will know peace.
--Jimi Hendrix

Quotes from Morrie

"Accept what you are able to do and what you are not able to do."
"Accept the past as past, without denying it or discarding it."
"Learn to forgive yourself and to forgive others."
"Don't assume it's too late to get involved."

Perhaps secular pop music really does harbour, in the words of Karl Rahner, ‘the eternal marvel and silent mystery of God’.

Why don't more evangelicals care about AIDS crisis?

This documents one of the reasons I am sometimes embarrassed by the words "evangelical" and christian" as used on this continent. A few excerpts:

The survey, conducted by the Barna Research Group for World Vision, a nondenominational Christian relief organization that does heroic work in Africa and elsewhere in the developing world, revealed that since November 2002, the percentage of American evangelicals who said they would be willing to make a donation to help alleviate the AIDS emergency has risen from 5 percent to 14 percent.

The survey of 1,004 adults also found that 17 percent of evangelicals (a group Barna researchers define with a complicated set of nine questions about doctrine, belief and practice) now say they would help children orphaned by AIDS, a figure that is up from a shocking 3 percent two years ago.

Hey, church, what's it gonna take?

Does Jesus himself have to make a special guest appearance, point at Africa and shout, "Yo, a little help over here?!" before you realize it's unquestionably your responsibility to do something significant to stem the tide of the AIDS pandemic there?

Yes, it's up to all of us as human beings, regardless of our religious persuasion or lack thereof, to care for those most in need.

But the church should know better. After all, you've had missionaries on the ground in Africa for decades.

Here's an idea: Instead of giving that weekly tithe to the local church to build a new fellowship hall, how about sending it to Africa to buy anti-retroviral drugs that will keep somebody's parents alive or send an orphan to school.

Some harsh words, but she's right. We just don't get it. We call from the rooftops "WWJD?", but we don't step back for a minute and think about what he did when he was around. IT'S TIME, PEOPLE!!

Life Update

It's been a while again since I've written. Life is cruising right along. Here are a few highlights:

1. We bought a "new" car. A '93 Fiesta, 5-speed, black, 2-door. It's small, but in better shape than the Sunfire, and it's really good on gas, which is becoming more of a priority.



2. Went to a funeral yesterday for an elderly couple whom I knew from the church I used to work at. They were killed in a car accident on their way to B.C.

3. Tonight I spoke at a baptism service at Lakeview. It always amazes me to hear the stories of people who are found by Jesus is diverse ways, and how all the stories are so different, yet all significant in their own way.

I am pretty tired. The fall has been busy at work, and 3 kids tend to depleat the energy reserves as well. Christmas should be a bit of a break, but I really want to learn to rest in the moment, and not just look forward to the "next big thing".