Friday's Thoughts

1) Mumford & Sons "Holland Road" don't overspiritualize it, just listen to it:


2) It's going to be 85 degrees today in Wichita. It's Novemeber 2. Dumb. (Read that as a tiny rant.)

3) The Senior editor for The Wichita Eagle taught my class last night. We got out early.

4) Some of the kids who trick-or-treated at my house had costums that scared me.

5) Kat tried to climb the curtains to catch a moth just after she jumped on someone's stitches. She spent the rest of the evening in the bathroom - you know, in timeout.

6) Hey, creepy old fat guys talking about going to Twin Peaks - you're gross.

7) Taylor Swift's new CD was okay. Wasn't as enchanting as the last one (see what I did there?)

8) Cleaver and clever are dangerously similar in spelling... It's possible I didn't send a text because I couldn't figure out which was what.

9) Boil it all down and away and every Christian ever knows only two things - whether mature or immature, smart or stupid, strong or weak - we all know we are sinners and that Jesus is Savior. That's enough.

10) Name your blessing - count them one-by-one. Stupid cliche, but Oh so necessary.

A Half Smoked Cigarette

He was looking for a cigarette in the cracks of the sidewalk. Not one he’d dropped, but one that had been half smoked by some cold individual just wanting a fix and to get back inside.

Thinking he’d found a good one he smiled and pulled a rag from his pocket. But as he stooped to pick it up he saw it was just a filter. Quickly he returned to his walk past the window.

The urge had probably begun a few blocks back, thinking a smoke would warm him up on the sunny yet chilly day. But the urge would return, he knew even if the one he spied had been worth the smoking.

Just on the other side of the window pane a man tore a page of The Wichita Eagle into long strips after he’d read it’s entirety. He’d done it to every page he’d finished, his OCD spurring him to do so.

The urge was so strong and the satisfaction so immediate, but so short lived. He’d begin reading the next page with a fever.

The fix didn’t fix anything.

Another and another and another would be needed throughout the hour throughout the day. Tomorrow a man would walk the streets looking for a half smoked cigarette while another would tear every page of the paper into long strips.

This boat is full of all of us.

Thinking the fix will cure us. Thinking the outcome will save us. Running from temporary to temporary, wanting them to be our saviors. But we know tomorrow will bring the same hunt for satisfaction.

Maybe we’ll get it, we’ll understand nothing but Jesus will satisfy and save, or maybe we’ll keep hunting for the next fix. But writing can’t save and neither can music. Her beauty isn’t enough and his style won’t do. We need the living God to do it, not a cigarette or some paper.

Creature

I got a cat. The Wichita Eagle had a classified add for, “Absolutely free kittens.” I called, went over with my sister and took one (his name is Luther and he’s at current intently watching me type while he lays upside down).

As we were leaving the place my first thought was, “These people are really going to let me walk out of their house with one of their pets? I’m not responsible enough for this! This has to be a crime.” But they did. (O and he’s litter box trained.)

Anyway, enough about the cat.

The point is responsibility, and knowing life isn’t about you. Sure you get a critter to love and nurture, but you also have to wake up to feed them, make sure their healthy, and clean up after them (it’s like an infant on an incredible light scale - but infants don’t have claws).

Learning to put others before you in a small way to begin with. Fighting your (my) sin of workaholic because there’s a creature at home.

Fighting sin to the glory of God should weigh in on many of our decisions.