Fuzzy Thinking

Jeff and I were able to get together again and do another episode of our podcast. In this episode we discuss incompetence, Why American Idol is so popular and what we are watching on TV. Join the fun!!!

Incompetence and Why American Idol is So Popular

I heard about this around 1990 or so. A professor at Cornell University studied incompentence in people. Why are some people just plain incompentent? Dunning discovered that those who are truly incompetent also have the inability to see their own incompetence. If you think this is a Joke, they won the Nobel prize in 2000.

You can check out the link below for more information. Also, if you “google” dunning incompetence and cornell you should be able to find more links. Check This link out too…It is from the American Psychological Association…..

EducationGuardian.co.uk | eG weekly | Incompetents are clueless, research shows

Does this apply to churches????

Does life really take Visa??

I’m still trying to figure out what the new Visa commercial says about the times and culture we live in….

Asbury College: Wilmore KY » Catalyst for Renewal: Continous Chapel Services Concluded

I missed this as it was happening…Ironic, but I was probably working on my paper for my doctoral studies at Asbury Seminary while the renewal (revival?) was going on at Asbury College). Anyway, the link is at the top and you can also read more here

It is interesting that because of the revival at Asbury in 1970 people don’t want to make too little of this…but it seems like they are also cautious. The revival at Asbury in the early 70s was so pure, so good, and so far reaching, that I can understand the caution.

It looks like things are back to ‘normal’ now…if things can ever be normal after God does a work like this…..

I found the following quotes interesting to say the least… For background info, the government is trying to cut its budget and many Christians are having issues because many the cuts are coming to areas that help the poor and children.

Budget Battle - Christianity Today Magazine
Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said of the protesters, “They don’t know what they’re talking about. There’s $1.7 billion fraud in the food-stamp program.” Congress decided against decreasing funding for food stamps.

Coburn cited other examples of federal waste and said government is not suited to aiding the poor. “If the churches had done their job and followed Jesus’ teachings,” Coburn told CT, “the government wouldn’t have started all these programs and created all these problems.”

But Coburn also cautioned against moving forward with further tax cuts. “We need to get our spending in order first,” Coburn said.”Then we can consider tax cuts, so people will have more money to do things like give to their churches.”

Here is another great quote from Rep. Jeb Hensarling. If you ever wanted who the “least of these” were that Jesus mentioned in Matthew 25, Hensarling knows….

“I believe the ‘least of these’ is my daughter, who’s 4 years old, and my son, who’s 2 years old, and all of those not born,” Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas, said. “I believe it’s unfair to saddle them with debt way into the future.”

We sat there each knowing what the report would bring but unable to bring ourselves to deal with the realities. We wanted to hang on to hope even though all hope was gone. She had been in ICU for two days. The pressure on her brain was at 120, it was suppose to be 20-30. We all knew what was going on, but we kept praying just the same.

She was so young with so much potential. It was an accident. She wasn’t practicing dangerous behavior. No one knows what happened….perhaps she simply ran off the side of the road and over corrected, but it is all speculation. Yet, the accident was so bad, she was lifelined to a trama center. It was there we waited and prayed.

Ministry brings you into various situations. Many times you have entry to some of the most holiest times in people’s lives. Many times you have entry into some of the darkest times in people’s lives. I can’t think of anything darker than hearing the doctor say there is nothing that can be done for your 16 year old daughter…your only child.

There was nothing in my training that would prepare someone for such times. Perhaps that is because sometimes words just fail and the less that you say is the most healing. They say at times like this, silence and presence are the most healing balms.

Sometimes “getting over it” isn’t an option. Sometimes the prayer is to just get through it. Moment by moment becomes the only plan that you have for the future. Please remember this family in your prayers as they walk through this valley.

Also, if you ever find yourself in a similar situation, check out Compassionate Friends. And if you have lost a child, you might be able to hook up with a local chapter and help a family in the healing process.

You got to love some of the quotes you find….especially when reading books from the late 1800’s early 1900’s.. I don’t read much like this any more. It causes me to wonder how different Christian culture would be if we followed such advice…..

Study universal holiness of life. Your whole usefulness depends on this, for your sermons last but an hour or two; your life preaches all the week. If Satan can only make a covetous minister a lover of praise, of pleasure, of good eating, he has ruined your ministry. Give yourself to prayer, and get your texts, your thoughts, your words from God. Luther spent his best three hours in prayer. — Robert Murray McCheyne quoted in Bounds, E. M. Power Through Prayer. Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc., 1999.

Well, I finally admitted defeat and had a second phone line installed into our house. Defeat? you might ask… Well, I was holding out for DSL or Cable, or some type of broadband access, but it just wasn’t happening in my area. In fact, the phone guy told me I’m only about half a mile away from having DSL. Oh well….for now it is dial up. Hopefully this will at least allow me to blog and post to umsource.net a bit more.