From Bits to Bites &
Windshields to Worship

It’s a strange feeling to stumble back across this blog after not having posted since the beginning of last December. Part revisiting an old friend, part realizing how much life can change so quickly without even realizing it.

I don’t want this to come across as an “I’m just putting something on my blog because ohmygod I haven’t posted in ages!” kind of effort (even if at some level it may be), so here are a couple quick updates. In particular I’ll try to highlight some of the things I’ve posted about “recently.”

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No one deserves tragedy. Regardless of whether you’re a sinner or a saint, a prince or a pauper, tragic events never occur on the basis of merit.

Sunday, February 14, when I was 6 years old, we were sitting in worship when one of the ushers came forward and told my family we needed to step outside for a moment. He told my parents that our house was on fire. A neighbor had called the fire department and, knowing where we went to church, called the church. (Ah, the days before cell phones.) We returned home to find that the fire had mostly been extinguished, but one end of our house was a burned-out shell and much of the rest of the house suffered smoke damage.

Sunday, November 30, 20 years, 9 months, and 16I days later, as my parents were driving home to Virginia after visiting my wife Becky and me in Indiana for Thanksgiving, it happened again.

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Today is Blog Action Day, an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. The idea is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion. Last year the topic was the environment, this year it’s poverty.

As a missional-minded Christian I find myself thinking about how to reach out to and help those who experience poverty on a daily basis. Over and over again the bible speaks out against systemic poverty. There’s recognition that poverty is a part of the ongoing brokenness of humanity, but there’s also the promise that in God’s Kingdom injustices such as poverty will be overcome. Still, poverty remains a pervasive problem in the world today.
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Those of you who are regular readers know that I have some doubts about the actual environmental benefits of both hybrids and flex-fuel / ethanol powered cars.

However, it seems the rest of our country is sold on the idea, including the automakers that sell to our market. In the past few weeks quite a few announcements have been made about more hybrids that are getting ready to roll down the assembly line: the Chevy Volt, the (new) Honda Insight, and the Mercedes-Benz S400 Hybrid. Call me skeptical, but I’m still not convinced …

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