New Blog!

This blog is moving here! I know, I know ... I just made some of you mad.

My apologies to all who will need to change a bookmark, and my gracious thanks in advance to all who will change their links to match the new site.

I hope you'll head on over and continue the journey with me. The web address is www.blog.preparetogrow.com

Starting PreSchool

Our girls started pre-school this week. They're really excited because they have some of their best friends in class with them, which also makes a parent feel better about the experience.

Quotes For Today

Here are a few more favorite quotes from a Dallas Willard seminar I listened to recently:

- “You are an unceasing spiritual being with an eternal destiny in God’s great universe.”

- “We pray ‘thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven’ because on earth, if I’m not careful, where I’m standing, his will may not be done.”

- “Spiritual formation is not activities … though it is something that can happen as a result of doing that. Spiritual formation is the inner person taking on the quality of the inner life of Jesus.”

“Grace is God acting in my life to accomplish what I can not do on my own. Grace is not a little transfer of credit in the bank of heaven, though we’ll take that too … Grace is where I find myself doing what I cannot do on my own because I’ve surrendered myself to God and put myself before him in such a way that I find myself able to walk free of the world of darkness.”

-----

“The Reality of the Spiritual Life: Part 1” by Dallas Willard
Institute for Spiritual Formation at Talbot School of Theology
9/19/2006

Social Utility Meets Sociological Reality

Here are two quotes to consider from disparate sources: Time magazine, and Dallas Willard. Both have made interesting (and similar) sociological observations:

From Time magazine: “[Facebook] has hung on doggedly to its core insight: that the most important function of a social network is connecting people and that its second most important function is keeping them apart.” (1)

Willard said, “Fellowship is often little more than a few minutes of well-calculated distance.” (2)

Has anyone else found this to be true?
____

(1) Lev Grossman, 23 Aug. 2007, “Why Facebook is the Future” – www.time.com.
(2) Dallas Willard, 19 Sep. 2006, “The Reality of the Spiritual Life: Part 1” Institute for Spiritual Formation at Talbot School of Theology.

First Day of School

Many children and teens went back to school on Monday. I've talked to a few teachers who looked like they were already beaten down by the expectation of another long year. I've talked to a few high school students too. One student had this response when I ask her how her first day of school went: "Boring."

Without attempting to place blame, does that response bother anyone else?

Sure there are administrative details to cover the first day of school and there are always those logistics that snatch away time, but is there not some exciting tidbit or educational carrot to dangle in front of students that would make them somewhat interested in the subject matter of a specific teacher's class?

And isn't there something inherently exciting about seeing old friends and meeting new ones in a beginning full of opportunity?

What's going on that someone could describe the first day of school as boring? Do you remember what emotions you felt?

Quick Blogger Poll

What's your reaction when a blog you frequent changes domain names? (i.e. switches from Blogger to Wordpress, etc.)

A. No Reaction - you switch over and go with the flow.
B. Excitement - because a favorite blog gets a new look.
C. Frustration - because you have to change your bookmark.
D. Annoyed - and you stop visiting the site.
E. Other? __________________________________

Martian Life

Have you heard? "Martian soil may contain life." At least that's the headline of a Reuters report (you'll find at cnn.com today). The reason I read the article is because I'm fascinated with science, and I'm amazed by space. I love stories about space travel - I've been a Star Wars fan since I can remember and I recently finished the first season of Battlestar Galactica. But, coming back to reality for a moment ...

I can't get too excited about the possibility of finding life on another planet. If we ever did, that would be fun and we'd have a whole lot of questions to answer. But we can't even take care of the life we've got on THIS planet! It seems like that should be a prerequisite to finding life somewhere else.

Any thoughts?