Sarah Palin the VP choice!

McCain taps Alaskan Gov. Palin as vice president pick

I think this picture pretty much sums things up.

Music Monday - Come, People of the Risen King

New music from Keith & Kristyn Getty (also the co-authors of In Christ Alone)! What an awesome call to worship.

Come, people of the Risen King,
Who delight to bring Him praise;
Come all and tune your hearts to sing
To the Morning Star of grace.
From the shifting shadows of the earth
We will lift our eyes to Him,
Where steady arms of mercy reach
To gather children in.

REFRAIN
Rejoice, Rejoice! Let every tongue rejoice!
One heart, one voice; O Church of Christ, rejoice!

Come, those whose joy is morning sun,
And those weeping through the night;
Come, those who tell of battles won,
And those struggling in the fight.
For His perfect love will never change,
And His mercies never cease,
But follow us through all our days
With the certain hope of peace.

Come, young and old from every land -
Men and women of the faith;
Come, those with full or empty hands -
Find the riches of His grace.
Over all the world, His people sing -
Shore to shore we hear them call
The Truth that cries through every age:
“Our God is all in all”!

Here, Mousy, Mousy

I feel like I’ve jumped into a Little House on the Prairie book.

“Pa had to go out and set the traps tonight, hoping to catch the varmints raiding Ma’s pantry. Bound and determined to catch them, he had 8 small traps scattered around the kitchen and basement. With its steely jaw and tightly wound spring, the trap was sure to give any little critter hungry for the good stuff a headache like no other. The good stuff was a fresh batch of creamy peanut butter, spread deliciously over the trap’s switch. After applying the peanut butter, Pa nervously and ever so carefully pulled the jaw back and set the bar thingy. His fingers still tingled from last year’s mouse trapping experience where the poorly made mouse trap had sprung on him. “That won’t be happening again,” Pa muttered under his breath. But that’s a story for another time, maybe when all the children are gathered around the evening fire."

Edit/Update: This mouse is one cheeky rodent. I checked the traps again this evening - all just as I had left them. All except one. No, no mouse. But the deliciously creamy peanut butter was gone. And in its place, the mouse had left a calling card. Yup, mouse poop. As if to say (in a French accent) "Ha! Ha! I 'ave foiled you ageen!" Why the mouse speaks French I have no idea, but anyway....

Music Monday - Double Feature!

I couldn't decide which music video to feature in this week's Music Monday post - so here's both of them! Both are by Fernando Ortega, with Mac Powell of Third Day joining him in the second. Both songs are excellent, with incredibly powerful lyrics and music. The first is Sing To Jesus, a simple yet powerful ballad that first points us to Christ our Redeemer giving victory over "our sinful hearts," then brings our focus to viewing Christ as our God, the king of Heaven, to whom we belong. Follow that song immediately with the second, Our Great God, a majestic and rousing hymn to the beauty, holiness, and awesomeness of God.

Sing to Jesus
Come and see, look on this mystery
The Lord of the Universe, nailed to a tree
Christ our God, spilling His Holy blood
Bowing in anguish, His sacred head

Sing to Jesus, Lord of our shame
Lord of our sinful hearts.
He is our great Redeemer.
Sing to Jesus, Honor His name.
Sing of His faithfulness, pouring His life out unto death

Come you weary and He will give you rest
Come you who mourn, lay on His breast
Christ who died, risen in Paradise
Giver of mercy, Giver of Life

Sing to Jesus His is the throne
Now and forever,
He is the King of Heaven.
Sing to Jesus, we are His own.
Now and forever sing for the love our God has shown.

Sing to Jesus, Lord of our shame
Lord of our sinful hearts.
He is our great Redeemer.
Sing to Jesus, Honor His name.

Sing to Jesus His is the throne
Now and forever,
He is the King of Heaven.
Sing to Jesus, we are His own.
Now and forever sing for the love our God has shown.



Our Great God
Eternal God, unchanging, mysterious and unknown
Your boundless love unfailing, in grace and mercy shown
Bright seraphim in ceaseless flight around Your glorious throne
They raise their voices day and night in praise to You alone

Hallelujah! Glory be to our great God!
Hallelujah! Glory be to our great God!

Lord, we are weak and frail, helpless in the storm
Surround us with Your angels, hold us in Your arms
Our cold and ruthless enemy, his pleasure is our harm
Rise up, oh Lord, and he will flee before our Sovereign God

Let every creature in the sea and every flying bird
Let every mountain, every field and valley of the earth
Let all the moons and all the stars in all the universe
Sing praises to the living God, who rules them by His word

Smells Like Corolla (NC)

30 Days

720 hours (approx.

43,200 minutes (approx.)

Can you tell I’ve been thinking about the beach? Or perhaps more precisely, I’ve been smelling like the beach all day!

The past few days have been so beautiful, especially with the cool breeze that has been blowing. It reminds me of the beach. To make matters worse – or better –, today Sarah took the kids (minus 1 – thanks Danielle for babysitting Ben!) to Randolph Park down in Dublin. Since backs are notoriously difficult to reach to put sunscreen on by yourself, she asked me to do it for her. Rub-a-dub-dub and a few minutes later, she’s set to go.

But now my hands smell like sunscreen. And sunscreen always reminds me of the beach. Add that to the beautiful weather and you get a recipe for day-dreaming at work!

Music Monday - If You Were Mine

Today's Music Monday post is in honor of my brother, Mark and his wife Violet who have just adopted little Abigail. Check out Violet's blog for details and lots of pictures. Congratulations to Mark, Violet and family!

This is Fernando Ortega's If You Were Mine.

Free Audio of The World is Flat

Thomas Friedman is giving away a free audio version of this book The World is Flat. It's an okay read, but I rather disagree with some of the author's conclusions. At any rate, it's free (ie., not costing any money, but in economical terms, of course, there's no such thing as a free lunch, or in this case, a free book.). Here's a review I wrote awhile back on the book:

Friedman writes in such a way that makes it very interesting to read. Unlike some books on economic issues, The World Is Flat is easy to follow without getting too bogged down in the mire of economic lingo. Unfortunately, this is not necessarily a good thing since Friedman picks and chooses his facts and how he applies his logic. In the book, he admits that he is not an economist and this is evident, even to this non-economist reader. Additionally, he comes off sounding like a broken record, repeating his mantra of “the world is flat, the world is flat” as if praising himself for coming up with such a novel concept.

My first reaction to the book was with the whole concept of flatness. He continually compares himself with Columbus, who set out to prove the world is round, except Friedman comes to the conclusion that indeed it is flat and this flatness is due to globalization mainly through the benefits gained by the creation of the Internet. However, Friedman seems to be mixing metaphors and doing a horrible job of it. Yes, you could say that there might now be more of a “level playing field” in that countries such as India and China now have a greater opportunity to take on parts of the service industry. Yes, you could say that the world is getting smaller due to the ease and swiftness of communication and travel. And if Friedman meant these metaphors, that it makes more sense. I was left wondering “What in the world has gotten flatter?” Even after Friedman discusses his 10 Flatteners, the metaphor still wasn’t clearly defined.

The other misgiving I had with this book is that Friedman, in his overzealous attempt to push the “fact” of globalization, makes it sound like all our jobs will be done by Indian or Chinese workers next week, so we’d better get busy in improving ourselves. Friedman does indeed have a point that the U.S., along with every other nation, should constantly be striving to educate better workers. But example after example is given of how this Indian company or that Chinese corporation has taken on so much of some particular aspect of an industry that you have to wonder if any Americans are left in the industry and when they’ll be laid off in order to offshore the work to India. Never mind the fact that while there is certainly some level of globalization, it isn’t nearly the amount that Friedman would like us to think.

Personally, I’m all for globalization and the competition it creates among nations and industries. However, I would certainly not point anyone to this book to learn the merits of it. I’m sure there are far more useful books than one that repeats the same nonsense over and over again. At least, I sure hope so.