Thursday, January 5

Catching up with some random thoughts along the way ... There have been several times since Christmas that I have thought that I needed to post on here, but I could never motivate myself to get it done. That's pretty typical at the end of a semester for me. Seems I need a little time to just chill and read and not "talk." But that's over now!

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I can't imagine the roller-coaster of emotions that people have gone through in Sago, WV have gone through in the past few days. The despair, the hope, the despair. They were victims of something that I think is far too common in today's world - people jumping to conclusions, taking small bits of information without knowing all the facts and running with it. Our desire to be the first to know, to have the "inside scoop." It happens nationally and internationally, but also in our homes, schools, churches. The worst part is that once something has been said and reported, you can never really retract it. On, you can say you did. But the damage has been done and the hurt can't be removed. How much better would it have been for them - even in a tragic situation - if people would have been "quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to become angry"?

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The past week or so has been the best "bowl season" that I can remember. There were a lot of incredibly close and exciting games: Alabama-Texas Tech, Georgia-West Virginia, Florida State-Penn State. And then last night's USC-Texas game just capped it off so well! Not that as a self-respecting Razorback fan I could ever cheer for Texas, but it was a fun game to watch. And after USC put 70 on us in September, I didn't mind seeing them get beat.

USC's next game will be against the Razorbacks here in Fayetteville. Revenge time?

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It has been a while since I have read through the Bible, so I'm doing that in 2006. I'm using Today's NIV for that. The translation has drawn both praise and criticism (and if you want me to get into that, I can in a later post), so I thought I would check it out first hand.

If you have never read all of the Bible, I would encourage you to make that one of your "resolutions" for 2006. Discipleship Journal has a couple of different plans for doing that. You can find and download them here. Even better, if you use Microsoft Outlook (as I do), you can download the daily readings directly into you daily task list! Then, when you open your calendar each day, the readings are right there!

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Today is the anniversary of the death of George Washington Carver. He died in Tuskegee, AL in 1943 at the age of 81. One little known (or forgotten fact) is that he lived at one time in Ft. Scott, KS. Now, what is he most famous for studying and where can you find his "museum"?