In a conversation the other day, the discussion led to those who are born on Leap-Day. That special segment of the population who won't get to celebrate their birthday this year because we don't have a Leap-Day this year. I think there are some benefits, though:

• Taking advantage of minor pricing when the rest of us have to stop early.
• Being able to live with your parents without worries (you can say, "I'm only 9 years old").
• Not having to grow up.
• Sharing your birthday with Superman.

People have often run. We run away from bullies. We run away from danger. We run away from responsibility. Some have even been known to run from commitment. What is it that we are running for? Our lives? Our sanity? Even more importantly, what are we running to? Freedom? Justice? A hiding place?

The words to this old hymn came to me today [The words were attributed to A.C. Palmer and Americans have sung them to a tune by Charles D. Tillman for over a century]:

Ready to suffer grief or pain,
Ready to stand the test;
Ready to stay at home and send
Others, if he sees best.

Ready to go, ready to bear,
Ready to watch and pray;
Ready to stand aside and give,
'Til he shall clear the way.

Ready to speak, ready to think,
Ready with heart and brain;
Ready to stand where he sees fit,
Ready to stand the strain.

Ready to speak, ready to warn,
Ready o'er souls to yearn;
Ready in life, ready in death,
Ready for his return.

(chorus)
Ready to go, ready to stay,
Ready my place to fill;
Ready for service, lowly or great,
Ready to do his will.

Thinking about being hot or cold and not lukewarm in service for the Kingdom, I wonder how much I am ready to do great tasks and how willing I am to do menial ones. How about you? Are you ready?

Or is that "Wondering"? At any rate, there's a new site to check out. It's listed at the right, but if you're too lazy to look there click any of the links in this post. They'll take you to Potterama the Benjamin Potter family website. You'll want to bookmark it because it's a work in progress and the progress will be r e a l l y s l o w because I don't know nuthin' 'bout buildin' no website.

Hannah wants you to ignore the family picture until I can find something better to replace it with.

I'm up for ideas--what do you think should be included in a family website? So far there's a home page and links. What do I need to add?

Valentine's Day was two days ago, and while I did post some, I forgot all about the holiday.

First for the excuses,

• We were enjoying the fruits of our first real snow since moving to Illinois. The kids and I made a snowman (actually, since the snow wouldn't stick together we made a snow mound and stuck sticks in it for arms and a nose, put a hat on it and called it snowman), snow angels, and had a snow fight. No time for warm and fuzzy holidays.
  
• I had to spend some time in a nearby town--one of the kids' vitamin drops had run out and I had to get it refilled. Plus, while I was out it was a good time to pick up Hannah's gift. Before lambasting me, you'll need to know that I'd been looking for two weeks for the right gift (using her suggestions as my guide) and found nothing. I did find something I liked--a beautifully decorated tea service (teapot, cream pitcher, sugar bowl, and serving tray). I waited to buy it hoping to find something from the list. When all else fails, go with your instinct, buy the tea set, and enjoy the happy sounds coming from the wife. Besides, the lady at the store offered to wrap it for me so that it looked beautiful before and after she opened the package.
  



• I struggled with whether or not to call off midweek services at the church because of the weather (some of us have to work even if it is a holiday). We finally decided that because the service would be after the sun went down allowing for the melted snow to turn to slick, hard ice, it would be best not to endanger people on their way back home from the church.
  

I must admit that I was surprised by my gift, but also that my wife knows me. She got me volume one of the Ultimate Edition of James Bond. Five classic Bond films on DVD. Haven't viewed it yet, but I'm looking forward.

So, after putting the kids to bed, Hannah and I celebrated by eating up the last of the leftover snow ice cream (made the day before when the snow was fresh).

For Dr. Who fans -- Here's what I found out about me . . .

You scored as david tennet. you are david tennet david tennet 75% john pertwee 50% a new regeneration 33% tom baker 17% which dr who are you created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as The doctor. The doctor 81% Rose 63% Captain Jack 25% which dr who character are you? created with QuizFarm.com

And here's my Super Hero identity. (Thanks to Gabbatha for the Superhero/Villain links)

Your results:
You are Superman

Superman 85% Spider-Man 75% Green Lantern 65% The Flash 60% Supergirl 55% Wonder Woman 50% Robin 50% Iron Man 50% Hulk 35% Catwoman 25% Batman 15%

You are mild-mannered, good, strong and you love to help others.

I took the Super Villain Test -- this is what I found,

Your results:
You are The Joker

The Joker 47% Apocalypse 47% Riddler 46% Magneto 43% Lex Luthor 43% Dr. Doom 40% Mystique 36% Catwoman 30% Mr. Freeze 30% Poison Ivy 29% Juggernaut 28% Green Goblin 28% Dark Phoenix 26% Kingpin 25% Venom 24% Two-Face 16%

The Clown Prince of Crime. You are a brilliant mastermind but are criminally insane. You love to joke around while accomplishing the task at hand.

Years ago I was introduced to the idea of word pictures by noted Christian authors Gary Smalley and John Trent. I was participating in a marriage conference even though I wasn't married at the time (the church paid my way so that I could drive the bus for them). Until I was married, I really didn't grasp the concept of word pictures. We were told that, if we really wanted to be heard, we should find a way to say what we wanted to say that would build a picture in the mind of the listener.

After I met my sweet wife, I learned that this was something that I did naturally. Sometimes the pictures the words built were not as appealing as I hoped, but they were there. I also learned that when I tried to create a word picture, the painting wasn't worth the number of words used to paint it (let alone a thousand).

I have also discovered that word pictures come in handy whenever you want to get a point across or guide understanding, not just in romance. For instance, today we are experiencing a steady increase in winter weather. It started with rain early this morning and has now moved into what is known as "winter mix". For the uninitiated, that means freezing rain or sleet. Surface temperatures have lowered themselves to the point of freezing or below, so when the ice hits it clings to and builds up on the ground and roads. This is supposed to progress into accumulating snow in a matter of hours. My point? How do I communicate to my wife, or anyone else that might be interested, the driving conditions? I could say, "It's icy out there," or "Driving is a really dangerous activity when the roads are this icy," but to make sure that my listener can really grasp what I'm saying, I want to bring to mind a picture that will indellibly mark the road conditions on the mind of my companion. Here's what dropped out of my mouth when I got back from retrieving our son from the sitter's: "It's slicker than snot on a hot doorknob."

What about you? Have you encountered some word pictures that really spoke to your heart? How do you get your meaning across?

“If you are truly in the center of God's will, where you are in five years is none of your business."

This quote from Veggie Tales creator Phil Visher bears some thought. In a world where we have one-year, five-year, ten-year, and even thirty-year plans for our lives, we are challenged to look more at the big picture than ever. Who is it that is in control of my life?

Sunday school answer: "God."

Truthfully, if we dug deeper into the ins and outs of our lives we'd find that someone else altogether is in control of what we are doing?

The child's response: "Those big people that make me go where I don't really want to go."

The real answer: "I'm the master of my own destiny."

As much as I like to be in control of all that goes on around me, when I am running the show, I often don't know where I'm going or what the outcome will be until we've arrived and the dead-end is in sight.

If I truly want to be a follower of Christ, then I must begin to live and walk in God's will. To do that, I can't make any positive statements about what I will be doing next year, in five years, or even in five minutes.

When I stood before a crowded auditorium in Alabama in January 2000, I became a missionary for our denomination. My intention was to travel across the world and plant my life as I planted churches among a people who knew not Christ. In the midst of the process, I met my precious wife. We took the time to marry, and before returning to my assignment, we had a baby and the wife was processed to become a career missionary, appointed in Alabama in January 2002. We began our ministry, making plans for a long and fruitful career.

So here I sit in the big middle of America. What of my plans? What of my goals? What matters is that I follow the leading of God. He prepares me for His work, His glory. Where will I be in five years? I leave that to the Master. What I do between now and then is to be faithful to His call for me to be here, now. In five years, perhaps I'll be here, perhaps I'll be elsewhere, perhaps I'll be nowhere on earth--what matters is that God knows, and that is all that is important.

Growing up we played a game that at a variety of times went by different names. The two most common of the names for this game were: play-like, and pretend. We made ourselves out to be the real thing and pretended all the things we knew about the situation of that person, or those people.

One of my favorites was to play cowboys and Indians. Some of us would put on our paper cowboy hats and grab our trusty bent stick that allowed for a good grip when pointing at the bad guys. With a “bang” and a “pop” we would have a real live pretend shoot ‘em up in our back yard. Others would take a long stick, tie a string on it, and aiming another stick, pull on the string until “twang” the arrow flew so that we could rid the land of the dreaded cowboys who had invaded our land. We loved to tie a band around our head and insert a feather into it to show how brave we were. It mattered not that it was a crow feather, we were real live pretend Indians . . . straight out of the wild west.

These days I’ve noticed that there are a lot of people still playing pretend. They put up the front of knowing Christ, doing and saying all the right things. We are so good at the game of play-like that we pretend our way to church, convincing ourselves that we are doing God a favor simply by calling ourselves by His name. We have become so adept at playing pretend that we have developed entire churches and church societies that bear only the slightest resemblance to the real thing. We make ourselves out to be the real thing and pretend all the things we know about the kingdom that is church.

We are not really serious about being church or even being Christlike. Instead we settle for being pretend believers in a pretend church pretending our way right into the broad way that leads to destruction and Hell. Sadly, because we are so busy pretending to be real that we never become real and those around us never know reality but only pretend.

It is time to stop pretending and become real.

Indulgence often gets us in trouble. Usually it is because the things we indulge in are those things which are not good for us. In the middle ages, the Church began to offer “Indulgences” which allowed someone to be released from purgatory. Indulgences were given for special deeds or special offerings given to the Church. One industrious priest came up with a fund-raising idea to help build up the Church’s coffers—sell indulgences. He even began the practice of selling indulgences to people for their loved ones who had already died. If you offered an indulgence in the name of a loved one, they would spend less time in Purgatory and make it into heaven sooner. It is reported that he roamed the streets of Germany proclaiming, "When a coin in the coffer rings, a soul from Purgatory springs!"

Today we indulge ourselves in many things, and often they are things which we should be denying ourselves. Let’s get off of the indulgence bandwagon and submit ourselves to Kingdom work.

Big news in St. Louis January 27 (click the link for the full story). Is this good evangelism?

Beer and the Bible

In a back room at Schlafly Bottleworks in Maplewood, about 50 people gathered on a recent Wednesday night to talk rock 'n' roll.

Why are Bob Marley and Kurt Cobain considered by some to be messiahs? When did rock music lose its edge and become another product manufactured and marketed by huge conglomerates such as Viacom?

It was a conversation perfectly suited to the setting. Beer-stained wooden tables and the smell of hops complemented a free-flowing, spirited debate among hip young people in scruffy beards and T-shirts.