Chris's Musings

I finally got a chance to, on a lazy Saturday afternoon last weekend, watch Food, Inc.   If you don't know what this movie is, it's a documentary that this investigative journalist did on on the food industry that supplies the vast majority of our supermarket and fast food products to the shelves that we purchase everyday.  Chances are, if you have seen it, it disturbed you.  It disturbed me.... from thoughts of "well, that's not completely destructive but it's unjust and I'm certain it's unethical" to "that is downright disgusting" (seeing the cattle feedlots and the chicken coop will do that!) Now, I'm a conservative.   What that means is, I don't feel that the government should be telling us what we should and should not eat.  I'm very opposed to their infringement in the personal everyday decisions of citizens.  And I totally get that we as citizens need to exercise personal responsibility when making decisions on the food w...

I am re-reading through Luke in my quiet times right now, partly because my small group is tracking through it in our group discussions and it's been really fascinating.  The discussions we've had have motivated me to dig more into the Word and meditate on it. So - I ran across the parable of the shrewd manager yesterday, and when I was noodling on it thought about what Andy has been talking about in church the past two Sundays.  He's been talking about how feeble our American prayers have become, and how we generally pray for things that don't really require God's intervention (like, help me have a safe trip), for God to bless us, and then for a few random sick people.  The sarcasm he threw out about our prayers as Americans for God to "bless us" stuck with me, because he's absolutely right that if anyone from any other part of the world heard us pray THAT, they'd probably laugh at us because compared to everyone else we are already SO blessed i...

Did you know that the return of Jesus is scheduled on May 21, 2011? No? How did you know, you may ask me? I saw it on a billboard on I-10 in Louisiana. And you know, interstate billboards like much of the internet, can't be wrong. Well, you know that roadside marketing and internet blog pages (not this one, mind you :) ) are full of interesting stories, and you can't believe everything you read. But, just because I was curious by the fearless prediction and the fact that some person or some group of persons thought it was important enough to spend money to advertise on a billboard, I decided to Google "May 21 2011" just to see what was going on with this, and which "prophet" or group was propagating this thing.  Turns out, like the whole "2012" Mayan calendar thing, someone had done a "Biblical" calculation based on some scriptures pulled out of context (my opinion), young earth theoretical dates, and some extrapolation of ra...

Another Christmas has come, and will soon be gone.  Another season of feasting and celebrating with family and friends.  Another day of the eager and giddy ripping open of presents from Santa and from loved ones. Another season to manically rush through the busyness of celebration. Another season to wonder "did I get the perfect gift?" Another season to pause.   And in that pause, I hope that we reflect on the reason that we're celebrating this day in the first place.  It's easy to get lost in our culture, our hustle, and all of the expectations of the season that one day about 2010 years ago, give or take... something happened in a marginalized part of the world, to the most unlikely cast of characters, in a very inconvienent set of circumstances... that changed the course of history and if we fully embrace the promise that comes with the coming of Christmas, the course of our lives.   On that day, a baby was born.  That baby was Christ the Lord.  Who...

First of all.. Merry Christmas! It's been really fun this year to celebrate this season with a lot of different groups of friends, in many different settings.  The Christmas season is always a great time to see old and new friends and catch up in many ways. You know, at a lot of these events I see people from church and in a "party" context you see them in a different context then you see them at church.  It's not about what they're consuming, but more about the character of what's flowing out of their actions when I see them.  I say this and hope that I'm speaking with integrity on this because I know that I'm not by any means a perfect follower of Christ myself, but it's almost as if I'm seeing a person that has left Jesus at Buckhead Church and leaves Him at the door and does their own thing at the party.  In many cases, I'm actually a little shocked because I've heard some of their stories and believe with all my heart that God ...

As the college football season finishes off, and Cam Newton wills Auburn back to life once again and Boise State ruins the hopes of all of the "non-AQ" fans that want a party crasher to the BCS championship game. As long as Auburn and Oregon keep winning, there should be no beloved controversy to bring debate back to killing the BCS, but if the Beavers or the Gamecocks get lucky next weekend, let chaos ensue: Because your options are: - TCU, they are undefeated BUT they played a schedule of cupcakes all season, including a 5-5 Oregon State team. - Wisconsin, Ohio State, and Michigan State - Three one-loss Big Ten teams in the top 10 of the BCS standings.  This may be the best "top three" of any conference in the nation, and none are, currently, ranked in the top 6 in the country. - LSU, who won't even win it's division of it's conference, but only has one loss, to Auburn - Oklahoma State, a one-loss team assuming they beat OU in Bedlam and Nebra...

I have just got home from a work trip to Boulder, and am still awake.  My brain hasn't shut down, and I imagine that my tying on this blog isn't helping matters any. This was an incredibly busy week work-wise, so there wasn't much margin to go out and have fun.  However, it was the opening week for a lot of ski mountains out in Colorado and with my knee being healthy for the first time in 2 ski seasons (I was getting ready for, and recovering from miniscus surgery last season, so no trips) the talk around the office about skiing got my engine running.  I want to go back, badly. It also got me thinking, now, about a "40 things I want to do before 40" list that is in my head but not on paper.  Ambition does that, it makes you think about "what's next" and gives you something to shoot for.  Ambition can be a bad thing, if it's all about boosting ego, but ambition itself isn't a bad thing... it's what propelled Paul to go out and reach the...