Quick update. I'm dreadfully weary of shopping. Not because of shopping, I like that part, because of traffic. Driving will test your love of humanity. Anyway, there's a new post over at roadsongs if you are interested.  I'm having trouble keeping up with everyone over the holidays so if I miss you I apologize in advance.

I've started a new blog dedicated to my spiritual work over at wordpress. You can find it at www.roadsongs.wordpress.com, come check it out. I thought about mirroring but I think that will be off more than on. In any case, the fact that I am attempting to return full force to the blogosphere means I might be here on my personal blog a lot more often. So, we'll see. I'll link it soon.

Christmas prep is under way with the busiest weekend we have had for a long long time. Argh! I met myself at the front door yesterday. I have to gather a fruit tray and a white elephant before The Well's Christmas Party this evening, come if you'd like, it's at 6 p.m. and the directions are available at www.thewellinaustin.com. We'd love to see you.

The hunt for a white elephant is an entertaining endeavor, I may post on that later.

So.....
I'm learning to cook.

Now at first glance that probably seems fairly innocuous so let me explain. Up until this point I would have said to anyone that I met, I don't cook. I don't mean I can't make fancy stuff, i mean, I screw up canned soup; Kraft mac and cheese makes my palms itch; Ramen noodles are a challenge and I have actually, not figuratively mind you, burned water. So why then should I go back into this arena of failure?

4. Yes 4, a simple numeral that can be so sweet and meaningless nestled in between 3 and 5. A wonderful integer that only matters in our life when it is attached to the equally sweet word "children." Since our fourth blessed bundle babbled his way into our lives time is of the essence. Between church, house, kids and Karin's job, (Karin's my wife for those of you who may not know me), we have less time to get things done and done well than we ever have. Now my wife comes in from her job around 5:15 p.m. and my kids mob her because she's mom and she's awesome to boot. In the past, she has fought them off lovingly and made our dinner, every day, but it was really beginning to stress her.

So I decided to intervene, because Karin is greatest wife in the world. (I realize some of you might be inclined to argue, I understand if you harbor these thoughts,but don't try to win this argument. My evidence is in surmountable and I am the most mule-headed man in the world.) On the days when I can, i am trying to make at least part of dinner. I am paranoid and hopeless but making progress so, you can pray that I don't poison my family or burn down our house.

So far, let's see...

Bacon and eggs, check
Grilled steaks, check
burgers, check
mac and cheese, from scratch, check
sausage of various kinds, check,
and finally I can actually prepare so called prepared foods that don't just go in the microwave.

When I try something really interesting, I'll let you know.

2. The Problem of Evil-Now that's the philosophical term, for the rest of us it means, "How can a loving God allow (insert suitably horrible circumstance) to happen?"

First things first, almost nothing bad that happens is the "wrath of God" unleashed on man. New Orleans didn't get destroyed because of the Deity Powers act or any such nonsense. If God acts, we'll all know it was Him.

Secondly, s*** happens. Guess what? Again using the New Orleans example, plenty of righteous and innocent people lost their lives because they were in that place at that time. The rain falls on the righteous and the unrighteous as the Good Book says!

Thirdly, keeping with our same example, we bring lots of things on our selves, call it karma or reaping what you sow but, New Orleans was destroyed by a hurricane and a storm surge that were abnormally powerful, why? The combination of the destruction of Louisiana coastal wetlands and climate change. Argue our part in that all you want, it is a fact we are contributors. Even then there would never have been a problem if it hadn't been for government corruption which caused a lack of maintenance on the levees. A few misplaced millions of dollars and viola! Instant disaster. Even then much loss of life could have been deterred if not for the stupidity of elected officials on every level of Government. Man hath wrought the destruction of New Orleans, not God.

Thirdly, Christian doctrine leaves no place for the Calvinistic fallacy of predeterminism. If God is just, we must have free will. If God is loving, we must have free will. If God desires us to love Him, we absolutely must have free will. Putting those last points together in a completely non-mystic format you get this:

People do stupid things. Most of the time that makes stupid things happen to us. Sefishness and idiocy (a working definition of sin) cause problems not just for us but for everyone around us and in the world, to the point that you cannot say that sin "a" caused result "b" in every case. I may get result "b" without doing "a," but rest assured I've done something equally stupid and caused someone else a result "b."

Finally, some things are impossible to understand. If God is all-loving and all-knowing, then there are some things I can't explain without His viewpoint, which I don't have so there ya go! Most stuff is explainable, though, with good theology and doctrine.

Okay, so those of you that know me will have heard this before but listen up anyway...

I think most of the problems that we associate with Christianity come from bad theology and incorrect doctrine. That maybe true of every religion but I will just speak to my own.

1. Sex scandals. Bad doctrine and bad theology in this area cause such a plethora of problems that almost everyone I know is screwed up somehow, pardon the pun. here's the thing, the Catholics cut off their priesthood from any normal expression of sexuality, an utterly un-biblical stance, and what happens. If god made man, God made sex. So it becomes pressurized and leaks out of these guys as perversion on multiple levels. The protestants have the same problem, we teach sexuality as tainted somehow and turn everyone into elective prudes and then wonder at our inability to sustain marriages or recover from sexual misconduct or damage. We live in sexless marriages (many of us, I should say you) where we are petrified to actually express ourselves or our desires to our lover. Then we cover the whole subject with a code of embarrassed silence so our damaged kids don't have enough info to make sound decisions that affect their entire lives. Get a clue, Christians! God made sex and He made it good! I'm an old fat guy who's been married to a wonderful woman for 19 years and our relationship is firing on all cylinders. If sex doesn't work for you in some way, get help, you're not doing something right. Respect it's power, yes, but for Heaven's sake, don't let this nonsense continue. Go read Solomon's Song of Songs in the Old Testament of the Bible before I get any half baked comments.

2. The Problem of Evil...(coming soon)

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