Randy's Brew

Learning

"The most important things in our life are learned by trust, not by deduction from experiment."  -- Andy Crouch, Culture Making, 120

Points from Marti Olsen Laney

• Introverts are different and it's okay.
• Introverts are different in three main ways:
  1. Energy creation
  2. Response to stimulation
  3. Depth vs. Breadth
• Introverts do like people.
• The world needs introverts with their unique and precious qualities.

The Introvert Advantage, Marti Olsen Laney, 35

"Jesus Wants to Save Christians"

From the  back cover of Rob Bell and Don Golden's book Jesus Wants to Save Christians:

"There is a church in our area that recently added an addition to their building which cost more than $20 million.  Our local newspaper ran a front-page story not too long ago revealing that one in five people in our city lives in poverty.  This is a book about those two numbers.  It's a book about faith and fear, wealth and war, poverty, power, safety, terror, Bibles, bombs, and homeland insecurity; it's about empty empires and the truth that everybody's a priest; it's about oppression, occupation, and what happens when Christians support, animate, and participate in the very things Jesus came to set people free from.  It's about what it means to be a part of the church of Jesus in a world where some people fly planes into buildings while others pick up groceries in Hummers."

St. Louis Trip '08

Dad and I made our 4th annual trip to St. Louis last week.  We saw the Redbirds take three out of four against Uncle Lynn's Arizona Diamondbacks and knock them out of the division race.  We sat with Whitey Herzog two games in the owner seats.  Enjoy the pictures!

 

 

 

Blanchard Bost Bash

Even though Uncle Coy did not let Hope jump on the bed, everyone had a great time in Blanchard.  The food was great and the company even better.  It is such a blessing to be a part of such a great family.  I know we all pray that Brian and Jackie have a safe return to Brazil.

 

  

  

  

And Kami, I don't turn 50 until next year!!! 

An Objective Hearing of Scripture

"If we may be freed by self-critical scholarly objectivity no longer to have to assume that the authority of the Bible resides in its saying things that we agree with, we may be free as well to hear more clearly what it really says instead of giving it credit for saying what we already think."  -- John Howard Yoder, The Politics of Jesus, 214

Top 10 Best Things about the "Empty Nest"

10.  Doors and bathroom drawers being closed do not wake you after midnight.

9.  Restaurant take-home-boxes are still in the fridge the next day.

8.  You only have to carry out the garbage once a week.

7.  There are no lights to turn off.

6.  The thermostat setting stays fixed.

5.  Cereal boxes in the pantry actually contain cereal.

4.  Finding a parking spot in the driveway is easier.

3.  A gallon of milk lasts a week instead of a day.

2.  The TV remote control is where you left it.

1.  You no longer have to lock your bedroom door. :)

Be!

"Be the change you want to see in the world."  -- Mahatma Gandhi

It's What Is Inside that Counts

"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared to what lies within us."  -- Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thinking Missionally

"Missions is certainly not just a trip you do for two weeks every summer.  Missions is a way of life.  Every Christian is called to live missionally, to seek first the kingdom of God over the empires of this world--no longer as venturesome Westerners who go to an island of "barbarians" to translate the Bible for them.  We are to live as missionaries whether we are doctors, students, scientists, teachers, or jobless."  -- Shane Claiborne