#ReElectNoOne

 

Yes, I am saddened by the most recent loss of school-aged lives.

Yes, I am grieved on behalf of the disrupted families.

But you know what? Posting about it on social media platforms won't change anything.

Raising a ruckus with our elected officials won't change anything. At least it hasn't during the last two decades since Columbine.

TWO DECADES!

It's time to hold those elected officials responsible for their lack of action.

While I am convinced that the ultimate solution will only take place when more and more people give up on worshipping their rights and start worshipping Jesus, I do have a suggestion that just might make an impact.

Don't re-elect anyone.

"But MY guy is in favor of my stand on issues."
     -  Your guy is also part of the partisan division that refuses to cooperate and compromise and accomplish any real change. As long as WE continue to stand in the muck of our own hatred and selfishness, the politicians will, too.

Part of what makes Jesus the ultimate solution is that he specializes in creating clean slates. This suggestion of mine is a non-religious shadow of that.

#ReElectNoOne

This is not a joke. This is the only language Washington understands.

Books I Read in 2022, Vol. VIII

THE GOSPEL: A Chronological Narrative of the Life of Jesus
Kermit Zarley

This story of Jesus is like no other. It includes all details of events found in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, the four Gospels of the New Testament...in the words of the leading Bible translation, the New International Version...told in a single narrative...readable, fast-moving., and in chronological sequence. It's truly the authentic, complete story of the greatest person who ever lived.

I would have sworn I bought this book while in Bible college, but its copyright is 1987, and I had been out of college three years by then. So I have no idea how long I've had this, but I know I'd read it before. This past weekend, I was on a silence and solitude retreat at the Pacem in Terris Hermitage Retreat Center in Isanti, Minnesota. This book, which weaves together all four Gospels into a single storyline, was my main input and it was amazing to be able to grasp the flow of Jesus' ministry and words and the building tension between him and the Jewish ruling council. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND SUCH A JOURNEY.

First line: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

Page 56/line 5: Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.

Last line: But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Books I Read in 2022, Vol. VII

 

HELL IS EMPTY: A Longmire Mystery
Craig Johnson

With Hell Is Empty, Craig Johnson delivers an action-packed Western thriller, rife with evocative setting and literary allusion. This seventh novel featuring wise-cracking Sheriff Walt Longmire creeps stealthily out of the corral with an increasingly tense setup. (The Boston Globe)

Two interesting bits about this time around with Longmire:

     1)  The entire action of the book takes place in less than 48 hours. That's slightly unusual.
     2)  At one point in the sheriff's searching for an escaped prisoner, he says this: "It was about a mile up to the Battle Park cutoff, where I assumed they'd turn west and try for the Hyattville Road that led toward the tiny town and eventually to Manderson, which was situated alongside the Big Horn River. Then what  -  north to Basin or south to Worland?" That decision-making point of Manderson? That's where my brother-in-law lives...on a bluff overlooking the Big Horn River and just across the street from the fire station where he's the chief.

First line: "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to talk with your mouth full?"

Page 56/5th line: "I'll take a sweep between here and Boulder Park to make sure the convicts are not in a ditch."

Last line: I held the ring up where they could all see it and then turned it sideways so that I could look through it and focus on the platinum strip of dying light at the very top of Cloud Peak.