o1mnikent

I was digging through my inbox and found a prayer I wrote for a chapel service (based on Psalm 98) at Trinity Theological College in Singapore while we were there last month:

Lord God, you have done marvelous things.
You have made your salvation known through Jesus Christ
and you have revealed your righteousness to the world by the work of the Holy Spirit.
All the ends of the earth have seen your salvation.
For the times that we’re blind to your salvation, we ask forgiveness.
For the times that we deny you, give us grace.

In your mercy, hear our prayer

Build and enrich the community here and the churches and the various ministries that are represented here this morning.
We pray for all of our churches and the local ministries that we are a part of – the preaching, the teaching, the learning, the discipleship.
Keep us humble in our work.
Provide us with discernment for our callings,
And give us wisdom in the choices we make.

In your mercy, hear our prayer

The world is a broken place.
Jesus, you suffered pain, so provide relief and healing for those who suffer pain.
You were a refugee, so go with refugees from the Congo and from Lebanon. Be their home.
You were hungry and ate nothing for forty days, and you were thirsty and tasted only vinegar, be the food for those who are dying of starvation.
You identified with the sick and associated with lepers, so heal the sick in our world.
You have experienced absolute isolation, so comfort the lonely and the isolated.
You came as Prince of Peace, so mediate conflicts between ethnic groups, between races, between governments.
We ask that you would restore your world,
so that violence and hunger and suffering would no longer be present realities,
but, instead, that your kingdom would govern our thoughts, actions, and relationships.

In your mercy, hear our prayer

We pray for Christians of other times and other places –
for those who have gone before us,
for those gathered here among us.
Help us each live the Gospel in our contexts,
reminded of our different settings but driven by the same calling and a shared hope.
We cling to your promise to make all things new,
And we pray in the confidence that this is already happening.
Give us a more profound realization of your life, death, and resurrection.
We pray all of this in the strong name of Jesus Christ,
whose resurrection we celebrate,
and whose return we anticipate.

Amen.

Last Saturday a tornado touched down near Caledonia, MI. I was a mile to the east of it, but didn’t get a chance to see it. Looks like I might have another chance this afternoon.

In light of Hugo Chavez’s recent comparison of George Bush to the devil, I found this article in the WSJ about Noam Chomsky to be interesting.

Noam Chomsky, by the way, is still alive.

It was recently decided that “Takk” by Sigur Ros and “Hide and Seek” by Imogen Heap are the two worst karaoke songs of all time. Other submissions will be considered.

I just overheard Shelly read the following sentence:

“Our ancestors have been human for a very long time.”

I thought an appropriate following sentence might be:

“Incidentally, this book was written on paper.”

Those National Weather Service jerks are at it again. It’s not a new trend, though. I noticed it as early as this past July when I went on a round-Lake Michigan roadtrip with my housemate, Dave. A few hours into our trip, the NPR station in Gaylord, Michigan forecasted a sixty percent chance of showers.

Sixty percent? Those crazy NPR hippies.

That means that odds are 4 to 10 that there won’t be showers. Something those liberal public radio nuts weren’t telling us. Fortunately for us, our keen ability to observe the world saved us (yet again).

I noticed a similarity in tonight’s NWS forecast for Lansing, Michigan (where I’m spending my weekend). Here ’tis:

Overnight: A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms before midnight. Mostly cloudy, with a low around 47. East northeast wind around 11 mph.

Geez. They might as well come right out and tell me how much they love John Kerry and the environment. From now on, I’ll be getting my weather from FOX News.

Many of you know that I grew up in a family whose father owned and managed a hardware store. Many of you also know that I spent my high school years and two college summers working there, along with a dozen or so other employees. If you’re ever in Lynden, you’ll want to pay a visit to Ace Hardware in the Fairway Center. It’s worth your time, and worth your money. Buy a gun or two there, as well, if you feel so inclined.

Many of you also know of my affinity for Alger Heights. The houses are beautiful, the neighbors friendly, and the overall atmosphere enjoyable. Most of all, though, the small business district thrives – an ice cream shop, diner, small grocery store, and a small hardware store, much like the one of my childhood.

Ace Hardware in Lynden, Washington almost burned to the ground in 1997, but escaped only with a little smoke damage and a day-long closure. Alger Hardware wasn’t so lucky. It burned to the ground a couple weeks ago.

The owners have created a blog that tracks the current store status, and you can find it at alger-hardware.blogspot.com.