Random Thoughts

My kids are a lot like atheists. They say they don't want anything to do with me but somehow they end up following me into whatever room I'm in.

I love how in the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus takes the man's question about who is is his neighbor and says don't worry about that: Be the neighbor.

When you're looking for limits on how much you can forgive (like Peter) or who is my neighbor (like the expert in the law) - you've revealed your heart. When you want to know where the line is, you've already lost the battle.

I was reading Psalm 131 to my 8th grade class and a student asked me what it meant to be 'weaned.' I told him that it meant you're were no longer breast-fed. He then yelled out "I've never been weaned." Ummmm. ...... I don't think he quite understood.

The new hymnal now has songs from Chris Tomlin and other recent worship-song writers in it. Does this mean that we can't sing them anymore?

A snow day at church reveals a lot of people's real attitude about our Sunday meetings. They sound like kids hearing that school's been canceled when they find out church has been. Something just doesn't seem right about that. If we're excited about a way out, why do we get together in the first place?

I'm going to sound like a heretic, but what does it mean that everyone has the inalienable right to pursue happiness? I think that's a very gray area - because my happiness may depend on me hurting you. Do I really have that in-born right?

Which brings up another question: I know our founding documents also say that all men are born equal. Okay - I'll give that. But are we all born spiritually equal? Do we all have the same starting point from birth?

I'm struggling with this verse: "Make every effort to make your election and calling sure." Kind of seems contradictory when you think about it.

It's really cool to have Jack Bauer and Tony Almeida back together.

I like my heroes to have nothing to lose. Get rid of their wives and families so they can save the world with nothing hanging over their heads. Which, coincidentally, is what Christ asks us to do when He tells us to pick up our cross and follow Him. We can't allow the world to have anything to hold against us to get us to stop moving forward. Hold everything you love with open hands.

I once interviewed five people for a job and each one told me that it was an answer to prayer. I ended up playing the true voice of God to only one of them. The other four? Well, let's just say that Satan never sounded so apologetic.

Psalm 81 says that if we open our mouth wide, God will fill it. I believe many Christians go through their lives with gritted teeth and therefore never humble themselves and open their mouths to receive that 'golden filling.'

I think that Obama's election was a classic case of the "times" creating a man and not vice versa. We as a country are so desperate that we've poured our collective hope upon someone who seems genuinely sincere and competent, but clearly not the demi-god he's portrayed to be. This speaks volumes of man's need for hope.

Speaking of hope, according to I Thessalonians 1:3, faith is the foundation of all things, love is the outcome of that faith - - - but hope is the fuel that keeps us moving forward.

We have become a country that sands off the edges: eliminating the unborn and boxing up the old.

Another time when I was teaching 8th grade Bible, a boy raised his hand and said, "Mr. Dagley, I have felt people." After a few moments of awkward silence, I realized he was trying to tell me that he had a flannel graph set for the Christmas story that we had been discussing.

I once had two people tell me that the other person was "Satan attacking me." I believe that both of them were correct.