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Should be grading today (and will be in a minute) but spent the morning biking with my 9 year old. One of the best things I’ve done recently is to buy a bike–actually 2 for the price of one on craigslist. Sam and I have been biking most mornings before I go to work. Today, we explored some woods trails, complete with logs to jump, burms to bump, streams to cross, and branches to duck. There are two adjoining cemetaries near our house and the space between them is where we found the woods. We found some woods trails and explored several today. Saw about a dozen deer this morning. Other mornings we have seen raccoon and fox pups. I didn’t know we had that much wildlife so near our suburban home. Best of all, I’ve spied some loaded raspberry and blackberry bushes. In just a few weeks, we’ll be eating some berries if I can get there first!

Actually, best of all, I’ve had great times with my son. He’s just as interested in riding as I am. Last Saturday as we were pulling out of the driveway we had this conversation:

Sam: Oh dad, last night I prayed the prayer last night.
Dad: What prayer?
Sam: You know, the prayer where I ask Jesus to come in my heart.
Dad: (nearly falls off bike). You did? That’s great. Why did you decide to do that?
Sam: [duh] Because I want Jesus to come into my heart. I prayed the prayer we learned at VBS this week [recites prayer].
Dad: When did you pray it?
Sam: When I was reading in bed…

Well you can imagine that this rather matter of fact conversation didn’t express my joy and excitement for him. So, we did our ride and at lunch time I remembered to tell my wife, who of course had the right response–tears of joy.

Sorry for the hiatus but Monday is the last class of the school year and I’m over my head in grading papers. No one to blame by myself. Looking forward to July to post some things that have been on my mind but unable to get out…

265 Spam posts since this am. Unfortunately, 3 or 4 snuck through the spam filter and were publically displayed. In my stats box, I can see which links get clicked (so if someone goes to a friend’s site, I can tell that). Sadly, someone clicked their way to porn links in the spam email. So, for now, I will moderate each post to avoid unwanted, tempting links. Your post won’t go up immediately unless you have already been approved by me.

God help us.

Normally, I don’t much enjoy faculty retreats. Now I like the company but it usually entails lots of sitting and takes me away from home. But, this year we are at Sandy Cove (a retreat on the top of the Chesapeake Bay). Had my coffee, paper, bible, etc. this am out on the peaceful dock. Water was calm. Ospreys in their nest; a blue heron picking up fish on the shore. Warm sun at my back. With the exception of not having my wife by my side, it couldn’t get a whole lot better…well the coffee could have been better but I can’t be too picky.

I wrote the previous post during our staff meeting. After watching it, two more thoughts were shared in the group that I thought worth passing along.

1. Christian leaders (including counselors) may be tempted to see their evil thoughts and actions as small in comparison to that which they hear on a daily basis. The problem with this is that we are comparing ourselves to others and not to a Holy God.

2. It is interesting that two “Christian” nations (UK and US) are trying to defeat evil with power. Christ’s defeat of evil happens with the giving up of power. Where is that right spot between justice seeking and turning the other cheek/forgiving?

My apologies for those who are being assaulted by porn spam on this site. I’ve taken down 3 trackbacks that made it past the filter that were porn links. It is interesting that when I write posts (or received comments to) regarding s*x or homos*xuality or p*rn that I get a tremendous increase in spam attacks. Well over 150 in the last week…

Ugh.

In the context of things that make you go, “hmmmm,” I offer this observation. My youngest son is charged with taking things out to the recycling bin. More than a week ago he was taking an empty Coffeemate (French Vanilla) bottle to recycling. In good boy fashion he gave it a good shake and created this interesting patterns of drops of the substance that is Coffeemate. Now 10 days later and two significant heavy rainstorms later, those drops on the driveway are not changed. They appear to be permanent.

So, are we drinking coffeemate or paint? My wife, who is the one who defiles her coffee with the stuff has decided to stop using it and wonders what it her insides are like now…