I don’t know if you know but I have returned to working in a produce department at a grocery store (I’m not going to mention it by name because we had to sign a paper saying we wouldn’t blog about it. Really!?!) I have worked in produce for a good chunk of my working life and I’ve found that I enjoy it. I was working on the salad wall (and wall it is, 25 feet or so.)  People just stand in front of it with their mouth agape. I don’t think they know it. Some look for 10 minutes or more. I guess they are trying to find that perfect salad combination. To their defense we have a bunch of options.   (Hearts of Romaine, Triple Hearts of Romaine, Premium Romaine, Sweet Butter, Italian (Romaine & Radicchio), American (more Carrots), Veggie Lovers, 5 Lettuce and on and on and on.) We have 40+ types of bagged salad, that doesn’t include loose lettuces and various other packaging. So people get stunned by the sheer selection. It’s too much. I’ve heard it said that Albert Einstein had seven of the same suit made so he wouldn’t have to think about it when getting dressed in the morning. He didn’t want to waste though on stuff he though was stupid. I’ve also heard it why people who have been in prison a long time often want to go right back. Too many kinds of toothpaste.

We even have come to believe we need all these options. A customer asked me if we had any more shredded lettuce. I showed her to the shredded lettuces but we didn’t have the size she desired. We get a truck almost every day but didn’t get it for whatever reason. I believe in customer service. I believe that they are always right but she was incredibly put out. No amount of apology would calm here down. She couldn’t imagine why we didn’t have what she perceived she needed (we had other sizes and lettuce that could be shredded). I immediately thought (but didn’t mention) that thousands and thousand die everyday without food or clean water to drink. I thought about Crispy Creme Doughnuts, Starbucks, Burger King etc. I thought about how Americans have created “too much food” diseases to die fr0m. (Diabetes & Heart Disease) It also made me think…

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for an American to enter the kingdom of God.  Matthew 19:24 (Mike Translation)

The point is really this, we, as Americans, have so many choices that we become a slave to the options. I have a hundred and some odd channels and there is nothing on I want to watch. We used to be happy with 3, or even no TV. I have so many options and things to stimulate my mind. I go crazy when I don’t. Try sitting quietly for an hour. I will fall asleep without the constant yammering. I always have to be doing something. I can be unappreciative and unthankful and it gets worse the more I have. So I’ve decided I’m ANTI-Choice and it has nothing to do with abortion (If you want to see what I think about that Click Here: “What It’s Like”)

I haven’t looked over this much so it could be riddled with errors. Maybe it always is. I’m my own editor. Love Ya”ll, m

Any of these things would make me want to speak out against the injustice but the thing that made me an activist and to not be able to shut up about it is the thing that bothers me the most. Christian’s, and I’m sorry to say I was one, using the bible to make people think that God doesn’t love them. I see the most hateful things everyday from people who say they are followers of Christ. They find ways to do away with the thing that Jesus said was the most important. He commanded us to LOVE GOD and to LOVE OTHERS. So take your favorite Leviticus verse and put it in line behind the COMMANDMENT. LOVE!

If you are gay please don’t listen to anyone who tells you that God hates you. God is crazy about you. Other people love you too. Things are going to change in the near future. 

You know, I’m sick of following my dreams, man. I’m just going to ask where they’re going and hook up with ‘em later. – Mitch Hedberg

I’ve been listening to the late comedian Mitch Hedberg recently and he made me think.  I really am sick of following my dreams. I usually am trying to make something happen. Trying to get God to do this or get Him to do that. It’s crazy because I know He knows what is best. It’s a lot easier for me to hook up with my dreams later now because I have no idea how to make the things I want to happen, happen. I know I have to wait and take it slow. I still have goals, an idea where I want to end up and am still going through the doors that open. I’m just trying not to bash them down anymore.

I hate dreaming because when you want to sleep, you want to sleep. Dreaming is work. Next thing you know, I have to build a go-cart with my ex-landlord. – Mitch Hedberg

Here is a talk divided into 5 parts. Each start where the last left off. I don’t agree with everything that the Pastor says but I don’t think I agree with everything anyone says. I think his heart is closer to the heart of the guy we claim to be following if you are a Christian. It doesn’t really matter whether you think homosexuality is a sin or not, we are all sinners in one way or another. I dare you to watch the videos and then let us know what you think.  m

These are from a pretty cool place called Mercy Church in Kansas City.

Mercy Church KC Website

The last to videos are a news clip on them and a behind the scenes at there God Loves Gays Rally.

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Bishop Gene Robinson

Fort Worth City Councilman Joel Burns

President Obama

Google Employees

Dan Savage & Terry Miller

Jesse Tyler Ferguson & Eric Stonestreet

Tim Gunn

Kathy Griffin

Governor David Paterson

Neil Patrick Harris

Ellen DeGeneres

Adam Lambert

Star Trek’s George Takei

Glee’s Chris Colfer

Harry Potter’s Daniel Radcliffe

The Trevor Project Website

This quote and cartoon make me think of this verse.

Fear of the Lord is the foundation of true wisdom. -Psalm 111:10a (New Living Translation)

I don’t think it means fear in the traditional sense. Fear that God is in Heaven watching you and waiting for you to fail so He can whack you with His stick. I think it means starting to realize who He really is. All you have to do is look at creation to be awed by His bigness and creativity. There is so much variety and it is so vast. Even to our small minds and in the tiny way we can grasp a being so complex. Now even that, as C.S. Lewis said is pretty easy. Now imagine that entity knows who you are. Imagine He wants to communicate with you. Imagine He loves you and wants to have fellowship with you. That is where it gets even scarier. A big God, cool. A big God who is intimately aware of me makes me afraid. The good news is that He does love us no matter what we’ve done.

FCKH8.com 

FCKH8 Fackebook

FCKH8 Twitter

It starts out as a bit of a Bono-palooza but moves on … some of my favs are at the bottom.

Bono, Singer, Philanthropist & HERO!

“I love the bit when Christ asked for his greatest hits and he says, ‘OK, love God, and love your neighbours as yourself.’ Christianity is not complicated, that’s what it is.” -Bono

I was born, I was born to sing for you
I didn’t have a choice but to lift you up
And sing whatever song you wanted me to
I give you back my voice from the womb
My first cry, it was a joyful noise, oh, oh -U2, from the song Magnificent

“Isn’t equality a son of a bitch to follow through on. Isn’t “Love thy neighbour” in the global village so inconvenient?” -Bono

I often wonder if religion is the enemy of God. It’s almost like religion is what happens when the Spirit has left the building. -Bono

“I am a friend to God, a sworn enemy of the saccharine and a believer in grace over karma.” -Bono

“At a certain point, I just felt, you know, God is not looking for alms, God is looking for action.” -Bono

“To be one, to be united is a great thing. But to respect the right to be different is maybe even greater.” -Bono

“It’s not enough to rage against the lie…you’ve got to replace it with the truth.” -Bono

“But with Christ, we have access in a one-to-one relationship, for, as in the Old Testament, it was more one of worship and awe, a vertical relationship. The New Testament, on the other hand, we look across at a Jesus who looks familiar, horizontal. The combination is what makes the Cross.” -Bono

“But I’d be in big trouble if Karma was going to finally be my judge. I’d be in deep shit. It doesn’t excuse my mistakes, but I’m holding out for Grace.” -Bono

“I’m not doubting. I don’t doubt God. I have firm faith absolutely in God. It’s religion I’m doubting.” -Bono

“You see, at the center of all religions is the idea of Karma. You know, what you put out comes back to you: an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, or in physics—in physical laws—every action is met by an equal or an opposite one. It’s clear to me that Karma is at the very heart of the universe. I’m absolutely sure of it. And yet, along comes this idea called Grace to upend all that “as you reap, so you will sow” stuff. Grace defies reason and logic. Love interrupts, if you like, the consequences of your actions, which in my case is very good news indeed, because I’ve done a lot of stupid stuff.”  -Bono

“The music that really turns me on is either running toward God or away from God. Both recognize the pivot, that God is at the center of the jaunt. So the blues, on one hand — running away; gospel, the Mighty Clouds of Joy — running towards. And later you came to analyze it and figure it out.” -Bono

“If I could put it simply, I would say that I believe there’s a force of love and logic in the world, a force of love and logic behind the universe. And I believe in the poetic genius of a creator who would choose to express such unfathomable power as a child born in “straw poverty”; i.e., the story of Christ makes sense to me.” -Bono

“I will admit that we are attracted to issues that unify people rather than divide them.” -Bono

“As an artist, I see the poetry of it. It’s so brilliant. That this scale of creation, and the unfathomable universe, should describe itself in such vulnerability, as a child. That is mind-blowing to me. I guess that would make me a Christian. Although I don’t use the label, because it is so very hard to live up to. I feel like I’m the worst example of it, so I just kinda keep my mouth shut.” -Bono

“I love the bit when Christ asked for his greatest hits and he says, ‘OK, love God, and love your neighbours as yourself.’ Christianity is not complicated, that’s what it is.” -Bono

“But the one thing we can all agree, all faiths, all ideologies, is that God is with the vulnerable and the poor. God is in the slums, in the cardboard boxes where the poor play house… God is in the silence of a mother who has infected her child with a virus that will end both their lives… God is in the cries heard under the rubble of war… God is in the debris of wasted opportunity and lives, and God is with us if we are with them.” -Bono

alright that’s enough Bono for a bit.

“There’s none to poor, too dirty, too broken. Too naked, too stupid, too drunken, to be thrown outside His love!”
—Aaron Strumpel,  from his song, “Give Me Your Hand” about the Love of God

“I want to know a person like you. Who’s not afraid to love the wicked and the poor.
I want to know a person like you
Who’s not afraid to touch the crooked and the whore”
—Aaron Strumpel, in his song “Dove” and he’s talkin’ bout Jesus

A young man who wishes to remain a sound atheist cannot be too careful of his reading. -C. S. Lewis

Don’t use words too big for the subject. Don’t say “infinitely” when you mean “very”; otherwise you’ll have no word left when you want to talk about something really infinite. -C. S. Lewis …think “Awesome”.

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have and it may just never be enough;
Give the world the best you have anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it’s all between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway. -Mother Teresa

Comments? Thoughts? Experiences?